Accel World: Ruby Chronicles
by AstralXYZ
Summary: Starting several months before the anime's time, this story follows OC Burst Linker Tsukihara Yukina/Ruby Sniper's experiences with Accel World and in reality, as well as her encounters with the enigmatic Burst Linker Shadow Phantom. OCs aplenty, mostly canon. Not dead, just very, VERY sporadic updates. Uni life and all.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is the first fanfic I've uploaded on to - I've actually been working on this for quite a while. R&R please! A writer can't grow without criticism after all.**

**A/N 2: Edited. Thanks for pointing that out, guest - I totally forgot to refer back to the colour coding after writing so long. . I was waiting for more information on the colours, but nothing came up. Also did a minor edit on one error that escaped my attention.**

**A/N 3: Edited again, noticed a minor hiccup in naming.**

**For the record, I'm following the original formats of Japanese and English names here, so:**

**Japanese: (last name) (first name) e.g: Tsukihara Yukina**

**English: (first name) (last name) e.g: Kyrius Igzelier**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Accel World. However, I do own most of the OCs that appear in this fanfic.**

**Chapter 1**

I rechecked the location indicator again, but it was still spinning around wildly. Just great, and I thought I was the only person in the Accelerated World who could disrupt it. Swearing silently under my breath at the situation I had found myself in, I released another sensor pod from the dispenser on my backpack and sprinted away. Almost immediately, the pod tripped and I spun around just in time to see a large scythe headed straight for my neck.

*whoosh*

The blade cleaved through thin air as I ducked and delivered a bash to my black-clad assailant's guts with the butt of my gun. With satisfaction I watched him stagger backwards before leveling my gun, switching it to gatling mode and popping off a salvo of lead at him. He looked up as he recovered and disappeared before my very eyes, causing the bullets to speed through thin air.

"Not again!" I swore.

Damned be ninjas.

I sprinted away at a good pace using my high jumping ability to move across rooftops. While I moved, I made sure to dispense sensor pods liberally - with Shadow Phantom's ability to disrupt the location indicator, my sensor pods were my best bet at finding him. But first I needed to put some distance between us...

Suddenly there was a whooshing sound to my right at the same time the sensor pod I had just dropped highlighted a moving black dot on my HUD.

I spun around and levelled my gatling gun at a patch of dark shadow cast by a skyscraper from the artificial sun on this Apocalypse stage, only to pause as nothing came into view. The next thing I knew a dagger whizzed through the air and nicked my arm. I felt my health drop slightly, and instinctively spun around to be greeted by more daggers emerging from the shadows.

Homing daggers! He wasn't supposed to be there!

I dove aside through a window on the balcony I was moving on, shattering what little glass was left there. Hitting the ground at a roll I proceeded to dash through the corridor as windows exploded beside me and showered me in tiny shards of tempered glass. Small dark energy balls floated into the corridor and homed in on me even as I flipped forward over my head and intercepted them in mid-air with my gatling gun.

A high-powered round from my gun's sniper mode turned the door ahead of me into dust as I dashed through into a large hallway. A chain suddenly flew down the hallway, eliciting a surprised shriek from me. It was too late for me to dodge it, so I swung my gun at it and batted the diamond-shaped weight at the end into the wall.

"Home run!" I smirked and turned to run, but skidded to a halt as I came face-to-face with a black cloaked figure.

Oh crap.

"You gave me quite a run for my money there, Shadow Phantom."

No answer.

We stood there in silence for several seconds before exploding into action. He threw his scythe at me, only for me to spin my gun around and knock it off course into the wall. He suddenly appeared behind me and swept me off my feet. I rolled aside to dodge his blade leg and rolled to my feet while seeding the floor with small discs using my backpack - landmines.

He threw a chain at the scythe embedded in the wall to retrieve it without so much as a glance at it as I climbed to my feet. Before I was fully standing, he was already whirling the scythe around while still attached to the chain, creating a killzone around him as he advanced on me menacingly...

Only for his advance to meet a quick end as one of my landmines exploded under his left leg, throwing him off balance and causing him to lose the scythe again, only it flew towards me again. I didn't quite manage to dodge it in time and winced in pain as it took my right leg clean off below the knee.

I knew I had to end this battle soon - I wouldn't be able to dodge or block effectively with one leg gone... Shadow Phantom was in the same predicament though, my landmine had blown off his left leg, leaving him standing only on his right leg. With an even face betraying no emotions - not that my duel avatar's face was visible through this mask anyway - I hefted the gun onto my right shoulder, where it rapidly folded outwards and grew into a massive cannon which immediately began collecting energy particles at the aperture of the muzzle.

In response, he raised his right hand into the air and dark spheres formed in the air behind him. As he lowered the hand, the spheres combined into one large sphere in front of his palm and began to radiate a cold aura that slowly froze the ground around him.

"Photon Maser!"

"Frigid Abyss."

The two special attacks collided between us, a wide beam of energy flying into the sphere he fired at me. The collision created a large ball of energy that expanded outwards and engulfed the both of us. A warm sensation overtook me... and the last things I saw were the depleted life bars at the top of my HUD as well as the word 'DRAW' underneath them.

* * *

"And so you solve this differential equation like this..."

I blinked. It was always so disorienting transitioning back to reality from the Accelerated World. A quick stretch later, I reached out towards the holographic screen floating in the air before me and resumed my note-taking. Maths bored some people, but definitely not me, and this was not a subject I wanted to miss out on just because I was a little fatigued from a fight.

As my fingers flashed across the screen, I let my eyes roam around the classroom a bit, trying to determine the identity of this elusive Shadow Phantom. Class 4-2 was split evenly between girls and boys. I furrowed my brows as I tried to recall the initial position of the enemy location indicator, but then again, he had jammed it right off the bat, so that wouldn't work... Gah, this sucked.

My mailbox rang, and I reached out lazily to open the mail I had just received... only to quickly jerk to attention once I saw the name of the sender.

_I enjoyed that battle. Let's finish it sometime else and determine a clear winner then._

_Shadow Phantom_

He knew... He knew who I was! How... my eyes began darting around furiously, but no one else seemed to be showing any obvious signs of looking at me and sending the mail... Gah, this made me feel so uneasy... Uh, wait, this was sent through Accelerated World channels, not standard mail. Never mind - I had been to distracted to study it carefully.

"Tsukihara-kun, can you answer this question?"

I froze as a question flashed onto my holoscreen. Just had to pick a time when I was distracted... Oh well, good thing I had revised this at home before coming to school. Reaching out with my right hand, I effortlessly solved it and sent it back to the teacher with a flourish of my hand.

"Well done, Tsukihara-kun. As you can see..."

With a muted sigh, I settled down and began wishing the time by, wanting to get back home and calm my frayed nerves by taking a nice hot bath and a short nap. I flicked a few errant strands of my long silver hair out of my eyes and rested my head on my left hand, letting my eyes close for a short while in thought...

...

"Yuki-chan!"

My eyes jolted open in surprise and I found a head full of brown hair practically in my face.

Waaah!" I shrieked in surprise and toppled over backwards. Falling over my chair, I hit my head roughly on the desk behind me before hitting the ground clutching my head in pain.

"Yuki-chan, are you alright!"

"Owww... Of course not! Don't scare me like that!" I slowly climbed to my feet using the desk for support... Owie...

"Sorry, but it's really not often I see you falling asleep in class. Is there something on your mind?"

"Nothing..." I groaned as I dusted down my skirt.

"Obviously something's troubling you... I've been with you long enough to tell. What could it be... fashion? No, you don't bother much with it yet still manage to look good in anything you wear..."

"I'm telling you, it's nothing!" I half-growled as I drank from my water bottle.

"Oh, I know! It's a guy!"

The water in my mouth made a grand escape in the form of a fountain directed out the nearest window.

"Oh, is that why you're wearing red panties today?" a guy approached from behind me. "This is the first time I've seen you wearing that colour... Hmm hmm..."

My cheeks rapidly changed colour to match my underwear and I slowly stepped over to his side, my hands closed into fists and trembling as I struggled to control my anger.

"Unless you want to have your eyes gouged out and forced down your throat, I suggest you keep them out of where they don't belong..." I whispered in a cold voice, mindful of the social cameras positioned in the classroom. I'd deck him otherwise!

"Come on, can't I admire the natural beauty of one of the classiest ladies in the... OW!" he never got to finish the sentence as I aimed a discreet jab at his ribs from an angle the cameras couldn't see.

"Pervert..." I muttered disapprovingly.

"Forgive Aida-san now, Yuki-chan. He's at that age after all..."

"Oh, my dear goddess Inaho-chan, I knew you'd come through for me!" Aida clung to Inaho's legs reverently.

"You two know as well as I do that I can't stay mad at his antics for long... Honestly, I don't know why I put up with him sometimes..." I sighed resignedly.

"Yukina-chan!" Aida leapt at me, but I put my hand in his face and held him away as he flailed his arms - comically if Inaho's hurriedly stifled laughter was any indication. Even I had to fight to keep a serious expression on my face, but it was quickly failing. It didn't take long for my mask to break and for me to start laughing out loud.

"Come on, if we don't get to the cafeteria soon, they'll run out of their famous yakisoba bread!" Inaho grinned as our laughter died down.

"What are we waiting for?" I asked as I started off in the direction of the cafeteria.

* * *

All too soon it was time to go home, and I stood at the school gates waving goodbye to my two friends, Akizaki Inoha and Orino Aida. From school it would be a 20-minute walk back to my apartment - I lived alone here on cash sent by my parents in another city here in Japan. It was a family tradition to train our independence by sending us off like this once we reached the age of 16. My first year here, and in a new school. I was quite thankful for the two of them approaching and befriending me early.

It was also my second year as a Burst Linker.

Brain Burst. Nobody knew for sure where the program came from, and honestly with most of the players being kids, not many people were interested in finding out. Most were in it just for the fun - after all, it was THE premier fighting game on the whole planet.

"Going home alone?"

I spun around and came to face a tall guy my age with short, spiky blonde hair with a low thin ponytail that ran halfway down his back. He was dressed in the average Japanese school uniform that didn't leave much for the imagination, although I could tell that he at least was slim.

"Igzelier-san," I greeted him.

"You make me sound old... Just Kyrius will do. I'm still not too used to Japanese honorifics after all," he grumbled.

"It's hard not to treat you with respect... You're the class president after all..." I giggled. _Besides, you're one of the more desirable guys in the school..._

"That makes sense I suppose..." he frowned.

"Well, at any rate, I have to get going, Kyrius-san. Chores won't do themselves after all."

"Want me to walk home with you?"

"Uh… why not?" I was a little taken aback by that act, but quickly recovered. "Any particular reason you're doing this?"

"Well, I've been hearing news of bullies hanging around the school lately, and you know how these people are like, skulking around outside the range of social cameras. Let's just say I'm starting to feel a little protective of my classmates, especially since I'm the class president."

"Well… thanks," I blushed. Spending time with Kyrius Igzelier… ah, I wondered how Inoha would react. She's probably flash me a thumbs up and wish me luck… even if I didn't quite think about him in that romantic sense. Either that or I just wasn't feeling… it for him just yet.

We stepped outside the school gates and I led Kyrius in the direction of my apartment in the middle-class section of the city. I had enough money to live comfortably there assuming I didn't squander too much of my allowance… Well, I did try to be thrifty at times, but I had my desires too.

Kyrius and I talked about various things as we made our way to my apartment. It made the trip seem a lot longer than just 20 minutes talking about our lives, friends, likes and dislikes… but by the end of it I felt a little closer to my class president. I could tell he still had a few things he didn't want to share with me, but I felt that I could wait for it. It wasn't like I was in a hurry to get to know him after all. Just talking to him like this was good enough for now.

"Kyrius-san, where do you live by the way?"

"Not too far away from here actually. It's about an extra 5 minutes on a different road, so we don't meet each other on the way to school."

"Heeeh… Do you live with anyone?"

He paused mid-stride for a moment and looked at me evenly. I could tell I had hit a nerve or something… his expression was neutral now rather than cheerful.

"On second thought, you don't need to talk about it if you don't want to," I hurriedly interrupted. "I live alone myself; Tsukihara family tradition dictates that I spend at least 3 years outside my comfort zone to get used to independent life."

"I suppose that's a good idea…" Kyrius mused.

"It is. I only started a few months ago after my 16th birthday, but I've already built up a steady routine," I swelled with pride a bit, but made sure to tone it down so it didn't seem offensive.

Hahah, good for you," the smile returned to his face as we resumed walking towards the high-rise building my apartment was in.

"I'll show you where my apartment is," I offered.

"If you don't mind…"

We walked into the elevator, and I sent an electronic message to the elevator to ascend to my floor via the local network. After travelling up to floor 13, we stepped out, and I led him down the hallway until we reached room 13-06.

He bade me farewell as I stepped into my apartment and turned on the lights. When I turned around to close the door, he had already left. Smiling brightly to myself, I locked the door and walked towards my bedroom. After putting down my school bag and sitting down on my comfy single bed for a short break, I got out a set of clothes – a white blouse and a pale yellow jacket to go over it matched with a black plaited knee-length skirt. _Oh how I need a bath now…_

A quick bath later, I sat down on my bed as I started up my Neuro Link and began sifting through the day's homework. Hmm, nothing out of the ordinary – I could finish most of this within the minute. Smiling, I leaned back and spoke.

"Burst Link."

The world around me turned an odd shade of blue as I stepped out of my physical body in my virtual avatar. My long silver hair was still the same in this state, only it was longer, coming down to my waist and with a black ribbon tied to it while I sported a long, floating white dress with a black belt around my waist. Thank goodness I was good at art and could design an avatar like this.

"Well… let's get started," I hummed a tune as I brought up my homework files and began rapidly parsing through them and completing them.

It really didn't take long, at least in terms of real life seconds of course. Before I exited my accelerated state, I made sure to recheck my burst point counter. Just enough to level up – I celebrated briefly but made a note to myself to gain more points first before hitting the level up button. I did NOT want to get caught in a battle without a good point buffer in case I lost.

With my homework done so quickly, I realized I didn't really have much left to do at home. Then again… I walked into my kitchen and checked my fridge and storage cupboards. Great, I was running out of supplies. Oh well, time for a shopping trip. I accessed the Global Net and quickly downloaded some extra money from my bank account before grabbing a handbag and setting out for the nearest commuter station.

In less than an hour, I was browsing through the selection of the supermarket I frequented. I was running low on my stocks of just about everything I needed, food and toiletries included. When I finally left the place, I was holding several heavy shopping bags filled with groceries. I was just about to head back home when a low grumbling sound from my stomach resounded through the air, though it was luckily overshadowed by the noise the pedestrians were making. Blushing, I made a quick note to stop off at a restaurant before heading home – I wouldn't last long enough to make a meal myself.

It was with that in mind that I stopped off by a nearby French restaurant, having decided to treat myself. I was partial towards French cuisine after my first try at it several years back, though it was rather expensive at times.

"Bonjour mademoiselle. May I take your order?"

… Eh? That voice…

I looked up from the traditional menu on the table only to find a familiar blonde standing beside my table in a stylish waiter's uniform…

"Kyrius-san!" I gasped.

"Miss Tsukihara?" he blinked in surprise and smiled. "What a coincidence meeting you here."

"I didn't know you had a part-time job…"

"It's not common knowledge… I don't like relying on my family's money too much, so I need the money."

"Any particular reason why?" I tried poking in a little further.

"Let's just say I don't get along with my dad too well," he kept his tone even. "And my mum is six feet under."

"Uh, sorry…"

"Don't be, it's hardly your fault after all, Miss Tsukihara. Now, if I don't want my boss to kick me out of the store, I'll have to take your order," he chuckled as he masterfully changed the topic.

"Oh, yeah. I'll have… escargot and caviar with lobster soup for appetizer, bouillabaisse for the main course… and crepe with strawberry ice cream for dessert," I hurriedly made my order, casting worried glances at the uniformed guy standing in a corner of the restaurant observing us.

"Very well, your order will be served shortly," Kyrius was all back in his business tone, but he broke it with a jovial wave as he left to take orders from another table. I smiled and waved back as I turned my attention back to looking around and taking in the sights.

To be honest, there wasn't really anything new in this district to look at, but the fountain squirting water up into the air in the middle of the plaza the restaurant was situated beside made for a nice, calming environment when paired with the ornate displays of French art and architecture in here.

On a whim, I brought up my Neuro Link's menu and went to my Brain Burst menu. Shadow Phantom… who was he? He was crazy powerful for his level, no doubt about it. That cloaking ability was insane, seriously… I searched for his name and brought up his stats…

… Oh my.

That was quite a high win/lose ratio. In fact, our draw earlier was the ONLY draw on his record. He either won or lost, and he won VERY often. A quick check on the Accelerated World forums revealed that most people never even saw him coming – they died right off the bat from precise, quick attacks that appeared to come from nowhere.

I closed my web browser and leaned back in my chair with an audible sigh. Was he worth Watching? I didn't really like to put people on my watchlist for Accelerated World battles… it made me waste valuable Burst Points, though I had a reasonable supply of them for now. Not to mention I no longer had any Burst Linker friends after my guardian lost all her Burst Points and got Brain Burst uninstalled.

Sorata Kanoe lost all her memories of Brain Burst afterwards.

I shuddered at the thought – I only found out what had happened to her the day after, when I met her in real life and she treated me like a stranger. It hadn't been a pretty thought thinking of what would happen after losing Brain Burst… but the thing was that I had gotten so used to it, there was no way I could do without it now.

So now the only way to keep using Brain Burst was to defeat other people in fights and take their Burst Points. As much as I hated to admit it, the program was like a drug – use too much of it for too long, and you got addicted to it.

"Here you go. Escargot and caviar with lobster soup. Enjoy, mademoiselle," Kyrius's voice threw me out of my brooding, and I let him place the dishes in front of me on the table with a cool elegance he never showed while in school.

"Oh yeah, I forgot… add apple juice to my tab," I called out as he turned to leave.

"As you wish," he smiled.

I had just picked up my spoon when the world around me turned blue and my physical body… froze.

"Great timing for a challenge…" I muttered as the world around me dissolved into digital streams of data.

Slowly, the data streams merged and coalesced to form buildings with large plant growths coming out of the ground wrapped around them. Trees dotted the landscape together with ruined buildings – waterfalls flowed out of buildings somehow as poisonous swamps bubbled out of the ground. The HUD dropped into place from above, displaying both me and my opponent's health and special bars, and I flexed my duel avatar's hands checking my response time. My senses faded back into being as well.

Gold Virgo… Gold colour, huh.

"Ohohoho! I finally caught you alone…"

Already that laugh was starting to tick me off… I clenched my fist tight and checked the enemy location indicator.

Dead ahead of me stood a distinctively feminine duel avatar decked out in golden armour – obviously… She held two whips in either of her hands, but I couldn't see any other weapons. Didn't mean there weren't any.

"But really, it's hard to believe that such a puny little girl like you beat my beautiful, elegant Shadow Phantom-sama!"

… What.

"He had an unbeatable record… until you broke it! So now I'm going to avenge him and take you down for the count! OHOHOHO!" she laughed as she pointed her right hand at me and cracked her left whip menacingly.

There was no way I was going to stick around to find out what she could do with those!

Within half a second of her finishing her 'le grande' speech, I dashed off as fast as my legs could carry me while I whipped out my gun in gatling mode to splatter the ground in front of her and kick up a cloud of dust and shrapnel. When she emerged from it, I was already on top of a tall building nearby and had engaged my cloaking ability as well as placed a few sensor pods around the area.

"Where are you! Come on out and fight!"

I levelled my gun in front of me and switched to howitzer mode, feeding it targeting data from the sensors pods near Gold Virgo as it folded outwards into the form of a large tank-sized cannon aimed up towards the sky on a pedestal mount.

"Fire in the hole!" I smiled and pulled the trigger as I aimed upwards. The explosion from the ignition of the powder in the shell reverberated through the air as it launched high up into the sky and came back down right beside Gold Virgo. I didn't see the impact, but the resulting explosion and loud shriek told me I had hit my target.

"There you are!"

Cloak worn off, eh? I seeded the area with landmines using my backpack as I jumped away towards another building. In mid-air, I raised my unoccupied left arm and aimed it towards a branch of the tree in front of me. A grappling hook fired out and wrapped around the branch as I used it to swing myself across the gap between the buildings to reach the rooftop on the other side.

A satisfying series of explosions behind me told me that Gold Virgo had stepped right into my minefield, and I smirked in victory as I turned around and lay prone while switching my gun to sniper mode and flipping the bipod downwards.

"I AM GOING TO GET YOU FOR THAT!"

I waited patiently to see if she would come into my firing range, but she never did. Even after a minute, I was left lying down there wondering where she had gone…

"Found you."

I rolled aside almost immediately as I whipped my gun around, only for a whip to wrap around it and deliver an electric shock that I struggled to endure as I rammed the butt of the gun into the ground with the underside aimed at her, where several hatches swung open to reveal rocket launchers.

"Rocket Salvo!" I let loose the rockets, allowing them to fly into Gold Virgo at point blank range.

The attack forced my golden-clad opponent to let go of my gun to evade the attack, so I seeded more landmines while she was recovering from the attack and trained my gatling gun on them.

*BOOM*

Seizing the chance to escape again, I used my grappling hook to reach another building. I made sure to drop landmines wherever I went, in case she managed to find me again. My cloaking ability couldn't last all that long after all.

"You're not getting away! Grand Wheel!"

Only my instincts dropped me to the ground in time to avoid the wide-area slashing whip attack she had just used. Her whip, having apparently extended itself, whipped out of the dust cloud and spun several times in a wide circle, cutting ENTIRE buildings and trees apart in its swathe. It passed mere centimetres above my helmet and also spun with enough force to blow away the dust cloud, leaving behind a very enraged Gold Virgo.

_Yikes. Better don't go down to ground level or go into buildings; she'll bring them down on top of me using that attack._

I quickly began moving again, but it wasn't long before I found a whip around my right leg tripping me over and dragging me back towards the irate duel avatar. Before I went over the edge, I had a brainwave and fired my grappling hooks at a large piece of debris left behind after Gold Virgo's special move. The hooks wrapped tightly around the piece of concrete, and as I went over the edge, I yanked it with all the strength I had, pulling it in her direction and releasing my grappling hooks after a bit.

"SERIOUSLY!"

I quickly loaded new grappling hooks when she released the whip to escape the flying debris, and fired them at another tree branch nearby to pull myself onto it. After checking the HUD, I could tell that I still had around 3 quarters of my health left, while Gold Virgo was down to half… oh, now it dropped a bit. Seemed like she didn't quite manage to dodge my 'little' present to her. I snickered and swung off towards another tree, planning on putting as much distance between us as possible – my sensors pods told me she wasn't moving, probably recovering from getting smacked in the face by ten tons of steel and concrete.

"Very nice, Ruby Sniper."

I looked to my side and saw a tall blonde man standing beside me on another branch. A fancy black mask covered his eyes, and a long coat covered his relatively normal-looking body with chains hanging around his hands and waist. On his back was a pair of black, demonic-looking wings…

"Who're you?" I blinked in surprise.

"You may want to focus more on your fight. Gold Virgo is getting very mad."

"Hey, making people mad clouds their judgement," I grinned.

"True, but it also makes them far more dangerous to tangle with," he agreed.

I quickly continued on my path after another quick glance at my special bar. It was filled, and Gold Virgo was a good distance away… Great, time to break out a special move. Might as well let her go out with a bang after all.

"WHERE ARE YOU!" a loud shout reverberated through the air.

I ignored the shout and switched my gun back to its default sniper mode, where the underside near the bipod shifted and a large box-shaped casing emerged and opened up to allow a large spike to drive down into the ground underneath. The upper part of the gun folded outwards, while the barrel extended by almost twice its current length and split sideways, only for two even longer rails to extend further outwards.

Even as electricity began crackling as the rails began to emit a menacing pale red glow, I fed in the targeting information from my sensor pods and aimed right for Gold Virgo… with 6 skyscrapers in the way of the shot.

"No way she can shoot through those!" I heard a spectator comment.

"Is this your first time seeing Ruby Sniper in action?"

"Well…"

I tuned the other spectators out as I planted my feet in the ground hard. Spikes in my boots drove into the ground to give me additional support as I trained the railgun on my target.

"Charging," I muttered.

As the seconds passed by, the ominous crackling coming from the barrel of the heavily-oversized gun got louder and louder, and the glow brightened. I looked down the scope to make sure Gold Virgo's form was still highlighted through the buildings using data compiled from the sensor pods I had seeded around and right in the centre of my targeting reticule.

"This is the grand finale! RAILGUN STRIKE!" I shouted as I pulled the trigger.

For half a second, nothing happened. After that, there was a bright flash of light, and the gun kicked backwards, straining my arm a little even with the additional recoil-mitigating measures. A long tungsten needle emerged from the barrel of the gun at a speed of Mach 15, leaving behind a large plume of ionized plasma, tearing clean through the 6 buildings in the way and impacting clean on Gold Virgo's helmet without losing speed.

She never stood a chance.

The Accelerated World deconstructed itself rapidly, and soon the world was back to its original state, vibrantly coloured with the defining smells of reality. The Accelerated World simply didn't smell normal at times… not that I expected to smell anything with the visor my duel avatar wore. I took in the smell of the food in front of me and absent-mindedly noted that I had a good buffer of Burst Points now. Levelling up wouldn't leave me vulnerable any more… Hmm.

Maybe later, the food before me was tempting my unsatisfied taste buds and making me salivate. I could've sworn I saw Kyrius look my way and smirk for a moment… was my expression really that easy to read? I blushed hotly and turned my attention towards attacking the escargot with a fork while making sure my long silver hair got nowhere near the food. When it got stained when I was eating, it was dreadfully obvious…

I didn't even know why I had silver hair in the first place since my parents had black hair, to be honest. I was born with it, and after checking it appeared to be a genetic defect. But it was quite striking and made me stand out a bit, so I eventually decided to leave it be. Besides, people wouldn't be able to tell when I had white hair, I joked. My hair was for all purposes completely white after all, even if it was oddly shiny.

I let myself relax and enjoy the appetizer to stimulate my taste buds. Nothing like a good meal after a battle… an exciting one too. Although to be honest, it felt rather one-sided. I paused with my spoon halfway to my mouth and raised a hand to recheck my Brain Burst stats. Previous battle… Gold Virgo… For a level 4 she was awfully… weak. Either that or my specialty was a natural counter to hers. Then again, it did make sense – her whip wasn't tailored towards long-ranged attacks.

It did bring something up though... I needed a way to defend myself in close combat aside from the landmine-gatling combo or my gun bash. If it could shoot down projectiles too, it would be absolutely perfect for helping me to stay alive and attack at the same time since I wouldn't need to pay attention to missiles, rockets and other nasty flying thingies.

Maybe some CIWS batteries would work. Shoulder-mounted, automatic tracking for small projectiles. No good against energy weapons, but I could always add an energy field to sop up energy damage. The CIWS guns would work well in melee combat too - distract enemies long enough for me to put a good round through them or get some distance for my long-ranged attacks.

Yeah, CIWS guns would work. Throw in the energy field using my remaining level-up points and it would seriously boost my defensive capabilities. Having decided, I allocated my new points and watched the representation of my duel avatar as her shoulder armour bulked up and two ball-mounted gun turrets appeared on them.

"Here's your apple juice, mademoiselle," Kyrius appeared beside me and set down a glass of apple juice on my table.

"Thanks, Kyrius-san," I smiled.

"You're welcome."

I resumed eating while thinking about that enigmatic Shadow Phantom. For some reason I couldn't get him out of my head. That single fight bothered me more than any other fight I had gotten into since I became a Burst Linker... Why? Well, no use dwelling on it. I'd just have to wait for the answers to come in time. In the meantime, I decided to put Shadow Phantom on my watchlist. Maybe it'd help for me to watch some of his battles.

I took a sip of apple juice, savouring the exquisite taste before going back to my food.

Almost all too soon, the plates on the table had been cleaned up, and I rubbed a hand over my bloated stomach, sighing in pure satisfaction. French food was the best! I raised a hand and Kyrius approached me almost instantly - he seemed to be paying particular attention to me today...

"Can I have the bill?" I asked.

"Sure," he raised a finger to interact with a program and a sum of money appeared on a screen on my Neuro Link's interface. I brought up my virtual wallet and dragged it onto the payment menu to pay.

"Thank you for your patronage, mademoiselle," Kyrius bowed.

"Thank you too for serving me, Kyrius," I favoured him with a grin as I left the restaurant.

I lifted an eye to check the digital clock floating in the corner of my field of vision, and saw that it was almost 8 o'clock. Well, I still had some time to kill, but first I needed to drop off my shopping back at my apartment. I almost skipped back to the commuter station in joy - meeting Kyrius twice today seemed to have lifted up my spirits a bit for whatever odd reason.

I hummed a tune from one of my favourite anime as I queued up to pay for a ticket, and was soon on the train back to my residential district. As I watched the scenery flash by, I navigated to my music folder on my Neuro Link and turned on some music to listen to.

It was another few minutes before I reached my apartment and set my bags down. Another few minutes to organize them in the proper cabinets and my refrigerator, and I let myself sink into the bean bag I had sitting in my living room.

Suddenly the world around me turned blue again as I accelerated. I sighed as I stood up, now in the avatar I used for spectating other matches. In this avatar I was basically a kitsune - I sported short silver hair and nine white, furry fox tails coming out just over my hips. My face was covered by a mask and I had two fox ears on my head in place of the normal human ears.

Dressed in a resplendent white shrine maiden's dress open at the top to partially show off my avatar's ample bosom, I faded into view atop a cliff overlooking an expanse of desert on which a large collection of ruined buildings stood.

"Desert stage, huh..." I murmured absent-mindedly as I twirled a few strands of my short hair around a finger.

I only had Shadow Phantom on my watchlist, so it wasn't surprising to see his name on top of the HUD along with a name I wasn't familiar with.

Crimson Fencer...

He was now standing on a rooftop looking around anxiously - a dark red armoured figure dual-wielding rapiers, a long one in his right hand and a short one in his left.

"Shadow Phantom again? This isn't going to take long..." a spectator beside me groaned.

"Huh?" I blinked.

"First time watching? I haven't seen your avatar before... Anyway, he's infamous for going for quick kills - often his opponents go down within the first minute... Oh, that's gotta hurt," his explanation was interrupted by a collective groan from the other spectators.

I turned just in time to see Crimson Fencer get bodily slammed into a wall, which practically shattered behind him and allowed him to fly through, destroying another two walls in the process.

"Shadow Phantom is a cold-blooded killer, that much is obvious..." the guy shuddered visibly.

I paused from listening to him for a bit as Crimson Fencer was thrown through another building before his arms were sliced through by a black blur of an avatar that disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Like a Phantom...

"I hear that someone a level below him actually managed to fight him to a stalemate though. It's unbelievable..., the guy practically murders Burst Linkers of lower levels all the time, and a level 4 fought him and got a draw!"

Eheheh... Woops.

I watched Crimson Fencer lose his legs as well before a cloaked figure appeared behind him for just a second. A flash of light from a scythe blade later, the battle was over before it even began. The red-clad fencer never even managed to put up a fight.

"People call him the Reaper. You'd probably do well to avoid fighting with him at all costs if you're lower-levelled than he is... but even then you might still not be able to win."

"I'll keep that in mind..." I muttered, deep in thought. Overall the battle barely lasted a minute, and the Reaper hadn't taken a single point of damage at all. He was scary, that was for certain. I sighed... What had I gotten myself into? Now Shadow Phantom seemed to be out for my blood... Why did I have to challenge him in the first place?

As the saying went... Curiosity killed the cat.

I sighed resignedly and said, "Burst out."

The world around me deconstructed itself and I found myself back in my original body in the real world, lying on the bean bag. Well, I was glad I had just levelled up and upgraded my duel avatar. At least the point-defence guns would help against Shadow Phantom and his teleporting daggers.

Just then, my doorbell rang, indicating that there was someone waiting outside at the door. I quickly brought up the camera looking outside to see who it was.

At the sight of the tall, brown-haired man standing outside in the black aviator's jacket and dark green trousers, I let out a squeal of delight that could be heard clearly outside. I practically jumped from my comfortable seat on the bean bag and dashed to the door.

"Ryusei-niichan!"

**Note: I believe most of you would've noticed that the Japanese OCs use the proper suffixes (-san, -chan, etc) while Kyrius uses English prefixes (Miss, Mr, etc). This is completely intentional.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: 2nd chapter! I'll upload the 3rd chapter in a few days to give myself a bit of a buffer to finish the 4th one first and start work on the 5th.**

**AN 2: Edited due to some contradictions with canon. When I wrote this chapter, I didn't know the fact that Brain Burst can be shared only once by each Burst Linker. (Yes, Yukina will be a mentor already.)**

**Chapter 2**

"Ryusei-niichan!"

"Hey! How's my favourite little sister?" Tsukihara Ryusei laughed as I threw myself at him.

"Doing great!" I giggled.

"Good to know! By the way, are you trying to show off your new pillows?" he grinned.

"New pillows?" I blinked in confusion.

Then I realized exactly what part of my developing body was pressing against him. My face went pale, and then bright red as I struggled to keep my embarrassment contained to no avail.

"Onii-chan... You pervert!" I lashed out with my open palm, but he easily dodged it and ran into my apartment, laughing all the way as I chased after him brandishing a book I had picked up from my sofa.

"It's a sign of a maturing woman!" he teased. _Ooooh... _

"Sit still and let me kill you peacefully!" I growled threateningly.

"Not a chance!"

I threw the book at him, but missed as he ducked under it only to get hit by a second flying book on the head. With a growl, I jumped onto my brother and began tickling him in the ribs with both hands.

"Hey! That... that tickles! Stop already! I give! I give!" he got out between fits of tickle-induced laughter. I simply let a sly chuckle escape my lips as I continued tickling him into submission.

"ENOUGH! STOP THE TICKLING!" he bellowed.

I backed off and let my brother get to his feet as he struggled to contain the remnants of his particularly intense laughing fit.

"Still... Those pillows have quite the exquisite feel..."

*clang*

"I don't know why I like you so much... Mou, onii-chan..." I blushed as I set the frying pan back on the kitchen counter.

"Eheheh... As sharp as always, my dear Yuki-chan," Ryusei got up as he rubbed the developing swell on top of his head gingerly.

"Do you absolutely have to come up with a perverted line to say whenever you see me?" I sighed. "You'll never get a girlfriend if you keep that up, onii-chan."

"I don't need a girlfriend when I have my favourite little sis now, do I?" he shrugged.

"You're incorrigible..." I rolled my eyes.

"Is there anything wrong with it?" he batted his eyelids at me cheekily.

"No..." I blushed. "But don't you want to find a wife in the future? We can't marry each other - we're siblings after all."

"That, my sister, is a question for another day," he wagged a finger at me.

"Fine..." I sighed. "What brings you here anyway? Don't you work in Tokyo?"

"I got shunted to the branch of my company here as a technical advisor. They needed someone to get the place set up, so I volunteered."

"Oh..."

"Since you're already living here anyway, I decided to move in with you. That is, if you don't mind," my brother gestured at the luggage bag he had been hauling with him.

"I don't, but the family tradition..."

"I already asked oto-san. I'll pay 75% of all expenses we incur, but you'll be the one doing the cooking and shopping. We'll take turns doing the other chores. Oto-san suggested this himself, he won't object."

"Okay then..."

"Besides, I never really liked to cook. Especially after my first attempt at making stew," Ryusei scrunched up his face in disgust.

"What happe-"

"Don't talk about it. Please."

"That bad?"

"Yup. I've stuck to instant food and eating outside since," he nodded.

I grinned. Blackmail material!

"Oh, I shouldn't have told you that," he muttered after catching the gleeful expression on my face.

"Who knows?" I whistled innocently.

"Drat, I hate it when you pull that innocent look on me," he groaned.

"I am your little sister after all!" I grinned mischievously. "I'm entitled to get what I want from my big brother, aren't I?"

"Minx."

"Skirt-chaser."

We dissolved into laughter together, and it was another few minutes or so before we calmed down enough to hold a normal conversion. The mood was jovial and relaxed - I really liked talking with Ryusei even if he was such a pervert - at least he had his priorities straight and knew when to be serious and when not to be.

My brother was 4 years older than me, which made him ineligible to install Brain Burst due to the requirement to have a Neuro Linker installed at birth - they hadn't been invented yet when he was born. He wanted it, but after realizing he could never become a Burst Linker, he instead decided to help me climb the ranks and developed a program that allowed him to record and watch replays of battles that unfolded in the Accelerated World using my experiences with it. He helped me with combat tactics and strategies, while I let him enjoy battles he could never take part in. That was how we had grown so close over the years. I would never admit it, but I had something of a crush on him.

"So, anything new in Brain Burst?" he asked.

"I ran into a new opponent that really gave me a run for my money... He's called Shadow Phantom."

"Ouch. How hard on a scale of 1 to 10?"

"9. I very nearly lost the match... But I got lucky with a landmine and took out one of his legs. I lost a leg too, but we drew the battle after clashing with our special attacks."

"Got a recording?"

"Yeah," I tapped the Neuro Linker around my neck.

"Can you show me? Wait, we'll watch it together. You should study his tactics and attack patterns so you know what to expect next time."

"I was planning to. He sent me a message after the battle asking for a rematch sometime," I nodded.

"Even more vital that we go over that recording," he said evenly.

"Yeah. I'm kinda scared, onii-chan..." I shuddered. "He's a really good fighter - I watched one of his fights later, and he was utterly merciless."

"You don't have anything to worry about, it's not like you can actually die in the Accelerated World anyway," he smiled and patted me on my head gently. "We'll watch that recording first, then discuss what we need to do."

"Right," I agreed as I grabbed a 1m direct link cable off the side table in the living room and attached one end to my Neuro Linker.

Ryusei took the other end and plugged it into his Neuro Linker.

"Burst Replay," I spoke.

The world around us froze for a short moment, and then deconstructed itself and reformed in the image of the Apocalypse battlefield I had fought Shadow Phantom on. I stood there, in my spectator avatar on the ground. Within moments, Ryusei had appeared beside me in his human form – he couldn't build an avatar of his own using the program. I only had access to my avatar because I had initiated the Brain Burst program, though with its functions scaled down. My brother would only see the battle as a blur lasting mere nanoseconds if I tried otherwise.

"The Apocalypse battlefield, huh…" he looked around.

"Yeah," I nodded. In this form I was actually taller than my brother, and also looked more… mature, obviously.

"By the way, why does your spectator avatar have a smaller bust size than you do in real life?"

…

"What? It's true!"

"Let's… let's focus on the battle instead!" I blushed hotly and pointed towards my duel avatar, who was running around on rooftops while Shadow Phantom bombarded her with his teleporting daggers. They came from all directions almost simultaneously – only my Agile ability helped save my skin and keep me from getting hit too often. Every now and then my avatar would raise her gun and bat a swathe of knives away using it.

"No matter how many times I watch you use your gun, I have to say I'll never get used to you using it like a baseball bat," Ryusei shook his head.

"Hey, it works in battle!" I protested.

"It does, so I'm not complaining. By the way, notice how his daggers are only coming out of shadows?"

"They are? Hey, you're right…"

"I'm assuming the skill fires the daggers out of shadows only, not true teleporting per say. Got any way to counter them besides dodging?"

"I got some new toys after I levelled up. My new point-defence turrets should help keep those daggers at bay," I smiled.

"Good. Now, his forte appears to be close to mid-range attacks, but from what I've seen it's impossible to get far enough away from him even using your landmines. You were right… he's scary."

I shuddered as I watched Shadow Phantom leap into the building after me. A screen appeared in mid-air to show exactly what I was doing inside the building.

"You spent too much time being pinned by his attacks, Yuki-chan," Ryusei lectured. "You need to remember that you have a defence against enemies getting into close-quarters combat, use your landmines more. You do have a practically unlimited supply of them after all."

"I was a bit too panicked by his onslaught outside to think of them," I sank a little.

"Can't blame you, that's the natural reaction. You haven't gotten into a fight this intense in a while, so you must've gotten a little complacent. Then when the tides turned against you and you didn't expect it, you ended up panicking too much to think clearly. Never lose your head in battle, Yuki-chan. Yes, you did get lucky with the landmine blowing his foot off, but never expect to get lucky in a real battle. You need to plan, plan and plan for the worst situations. If there's a way to put you back in that bad situation, you'd better be damned sure it won't be viable by preparing for it."

We watched as Shadow Phantom raised his hand to summon the balls of freezing dark energy behind him and merge them into one big ball just before he fired off his Frigid Abyss special attack. Again, I noted the freezing ground beneath him.

"That could be troublesome. He's got energy attacks."

"I saved a point for that, actually. I just wanted to ask for your opinion first."

Whaddya have?"

"I can add a pinpoint defence barrier to my duel avatar," I explained. "It'll move to automatically intercept energy projectiles – it'll block only energy projectiles, slowly recharges over time, and doesn't block physical projectiles but those can be dealt with by my point-defence guns."

"Hm, anything else?"

"I can enhance my sensor pods with stealth capabilities so they aren't as visible, or I could also add a laser mode to my gun."

"I'd take the barrier. There are times when you are not going to be able to dodge attacks, and that barrier will help you sop up the damage from those until you can get moving again. The laser mode isn't that important – as it stands you still haven't completely mastered all your gun modes yet. The gatling landmine detonation thing is good, I'll give you that, but I get the feeling there's so much more you can do with all those different modes."

"Relying on feel now?"

"Yukina, I can't experience your battles as you do, so I can't say for certain how you can improve. This isn't something I'll be able to coach into you – you need to figure it out by yourself. Battle experience isn't something I have – I'm only good at the theoretical stuff. You're the one who puts all the theory to the test in your battles after all."

"Alright, onii-chan."

"Good," he smiled as he patted my head again, though he had to reach up higher than usual to do it.

"Right. Are we done here?"

"We are. We've spent enough time in here as is, and I still need my sleep, thank you very much," he yawned.

"Then I'm getting us out. Burst Out."

The world deconstructed itself again, and we found ourselves back in our real bodies, still directly linked with each other using the cable.

"_How much time passed?" _Ryusei asked over the direct link wordlessly.

"_An hour or so. It's 9 now."_

"Good, because I am feeling absolutely bushed and famished," he said as he unplugged the cable.

"I just ate, actually," I fidgeted shyly.

"Oh, it's okay. Got any instant food around?"

"A few bowls of instant ramen. I keep them around in case I have too little time to cook for myself," I showed him to the kitchen where I opened a cabinet. Four bowls of instant ramen sat inside, wrapping still untouched. "Of course, because I use Brain Burst to do my homework, that doesn't happen very often."

"Cheater," he mumbled. "I need to do everything in normal time."

"Hey, I have you to thank for all my successful battles," I laughed. "Maybe you can shunt some minor work off to me and I'll help you work it out. I do owe you after all."

"Really? Thanks!" he grinned and hugged me. I blushed and reciprocated the hug without a shred of hesitation. He was my brother after all, this was only natural.

I felt thirsty, so I went over to the water dispenser built into my fridge and got myself a glass of water.

"So… has anyone been getting into your underwear these days?"

The water I had been drinking again made a mad dash for freedom in the form of a water fountain this time directed right at my brother.

"ONII-CHAN! I'M NOT THAT KIND OF PERSON, OKAY!" I shouted indignantly once I had recovered from the water spout, ignoring my brother's sopping wet hair and face.

"You are at that age, and you're growing up to be a really beautiful and voluptuous young wom-" he never finished as I stepped on his foot painfully. "OWOWOWOW!"

"I don't know if I should be happy about you complimenting me or angry about you being a pervert..." I blushed.

"Hey... Ahchoo!" he sneezed.

"Get in the bath before you catch a cold!" I shooed him forwards the bathroom.

"Not even a word of apology? You spat that water all over me after all..."

I stuck my tongue out at him and shoved him into the bathroom before leaving, closing the door behind me. My bath could wait until my dear perverted brother was done - I was totally unrepentant about getting him wet since it was his fault for picking such a time to ask me a stupid question...

Then again, he did go out of his way to rile me up quite often. Especially when we were young. It was always in a playful manner to avoid making me too mad, but I just couldn't help attacking him somehow when he made an off-colour comment.

Still, maybe he wasn't wrong about me starting to mature. I blushed as I thought about his comment just now... I knew I wasn't as conscious of my beauty as some of the other girls out there, but my brother kept insisting I was something like the most beautiful person he had ever met.

_"Well, aside from all those famous and beautiful Hollywood actresses in the States..."_ he had smirked once before I left for the traditional independence training. That had earned him an elbow to the guts and me a stern reprimand from my father for hitting my brother.

But of course, Ryusei somehow managed to defuse the situation later and get everyone laughing again.

I sighed and went to get a change of clothes from the closet in my bedroom - a set of blue pyjamas. Ryusei sometimes found it odd that I didn't like pink, but I just... disliked the colour for some reason. It was girly, yes, but definitely not 'me'.

Oh yeah, his instant ramen hadn't been cooked yet. I left my clothes in the basket outside my bathroom and spent a short moment gazing in the direction of the sliding shower door wistfully, wondering how my brother looked under his shirt.

_"Not now,"_ I reminded myself as I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

I headed back into the kitchen to prepare the instant ramen for my brother. It didn't take long, and I finished just as he exited the shower with a towel wrapped around his midsection. I spent a short moment admiring his stocky, well-built form and shook my head, wishing I could get together with a guy like that in the future.

"Oh, you got it ready for me? Thanks!" he grinned as he rummaged in his luggage bag for clothes. As he changed, I stepped into the shower myself for my usual evening bath. Technically it was almost night though... Oh well, not much difference anyway. I shrugged as I stripped off my clothes and put them in a waiting basket. That shopping trip had gotten me all hot and sweaty...

"You'd better not peek, onii-chan!"

"Okay, okay!"

I let the hot water cascade down my shoulders and my body, letting myself calm down as I lost myself in the throes of its comfort. Hot baths were the best! It made me think of visiting a hot spring sometime. Now that'd be pure bliss...

I tucked a stray bang of my wet hair behind my right ear as I washed myself down and reminisced about the past when Ryusei had helped me to wash my hair. Back then, we were still young so we didn't have much reservations about being with each other naked.

I chuckled lightly as I recalled a scene from my early childhood which had him slipping on a bar of soap and ending up sliding clean across the bathroom and into the tub, which was fortunately empty.

He walked away with a big bump on his head still laughing.

After I got out of the shower, I spent some time blowing my hair dry and changed into my pyjamas. After some more small talk with my brother, I brushed my teeth and went to bed, wishing Ryusei good night.

* * *

I woke up early in the morning at 6 am to make my bento to take to school. While the sausages were sizzling on the stove, I changed into my school uniform - a white shirt under a light brown blazer and a beige-coloured skirt with a red and yellow braided chain running around one side. A red bow on the front of the collar and a school logo on the right sleeve completed the uniform.

Ryusei was sleeping in the second bedroom here, but he didn't have time to unpack yet. When I peeked in, his luggage bag was inside, its compartment partially open and he had clothes strewn all over the place. I sighed and closed the door, making sure not to disturb him. Must've been a tiring trip, he was still fast asleep even at this time of the day. Luckily he wouldn't start work for another week or so.

After a quick breakfast, I slipped into my shoes, got my school bag and left the house, calling out, "I'm heading out!" as I stepped out the door. It locked behind me while I headed for the lift to go downstairs.

Ten minutes later I was walking towards the school alongside several other people dressed in the same uniform and the male version which had dark brown pants instead of the skirt.

"Yuki-chan!"

I turned around and saw the short-statured Inoha running towards me waving at me.

"Inoha-chan! Ohaiyo!" I greeted her as she drew alongside me.

"Nee, nee, I heard you walked home with the foreign prince yesterday..."

"Wh... What?" I blinked in surprise. The word had spread that fast!

"A lot of people saw you, you know..."

"He... He was just escorting me home because he was scared I might get attacked or something!"

"Oh... Really?" she gave me a devious smile as her eyes flashed with anticipation.

"Really! There's nothing between us!" I hurriedly denied her allegation.

"If you say so..." she sighed. "And here I was thinking you might have juicy information for me..."

I blushed bright red.

"AH! You're blushing!"

"AM NOT!" I growled, utterly failing to hide the blush.

"So you do fancy Kyrius-san!"

"How did you reach that conclusion!"

"It's obvious... Every now and then I see you glance at him and quickly look away... You stare at him during PE..."

"Inoha-chan... There is nothing between us and that is final!" I huffed.

"I'll take your word for it, but his fan club is starting to notice you..."

"Urk."

For the rest of the walk to the school, I kept my eyes wide open and scanned my surroundings for any signs of rabid fangirls plotting to kill me in a horrible manner and dump my remains in a dumpster somewhere...

Fortunately I made it to the school without any major incidents occurring.

"Ohaiyo, Miss Tsukihara, Miss Takata," Kyrius greeted us as we walked into the classroom.

"O... Ohaiyo, Kyrius-san," I stammered awkwardly. The conversation earlier had put me a little on edge...

Inoha smirked at me. Gah.

We took our seats, with quite a bit of time before the teacher came into class to start homeroom. Somehow I could feel the cold glares of some of the other girls in the class on my back... Eep...

"See what I mean?" Inoha whispered in my ear.

Ueeh..." I whimpered.

Classes went on mostly as usual until the PE period around midday. It was track day, so we changed into jerseys and short pants. The period started off with some stretching and warming up before we hit the track, guys first. I laid my head on my crossed fingers as I sat on a bench watching Kyrius during his run.

"28 seconds for 100 metres, good run, Igzelier-kun!"

He ran by another guy, hi-fiving him as he lined up for a run around the track. Again, I kept my eyes on him, wondering what made me feel... attracted to him. Inoha had some truth in her words, even if I was loathe to admit it. I sighed and moved my finger on the ground in little circles somewhat absent-mindedly.

Inoha was talking with some of her other friends at the moment while Aida was running, so I was alone at the moment. Plus, I couldn't really bear to be so near to the possible members of Kyrius's fan club - the glares made me feel very insecure.

I looked up from my brooding and noticed that the guys were done running now, but what surprised me was that Kyrius was walking in my direction, shaking his head and causing beads of sweat to fly off.

For a moment, I forgot about not dating him and just lost myself in the cool sight of a sweat-covered Kyrius.

"Miss Tsukihara, may I have a drink? I left my water bottle in the classroom..." he asked.

"Oh, sure..." I replied dreamily as I handed him my bottle.

"Thanks..." he took a long chug from it before handing it back to me and walking off whistling a tune.

I accepted the bottle and feeling thirsty, decided to drink too.

"Oh my, Yuki-chan you're so bold going for an indirect kiss!"

I hurriedly turned my head as I spat the water I had just been drinking out onto the grass and began coughing.

"INOHA-CHAN!"

"I came back just in time to see the whole exchange... Lucky you, Yuki-chan!"

"I TOLD YOU, THERE'S NOTHING BETWEEN US!" I shouted indignantly even as my blush began spreading from my cheeks to my neck...

"Well you sure look happy after that indirect kiss..." my companion snickered.

"HEY!"

"I'll leave you to your teenage fantasising and go run by myself..." she made off before I could say anything.

I put two fingers to my lips in awe... In... Indirect... Kiss... I felt like I could explode at any moment from happiness... and the feeling of impending doom...

"Tsukihara-san, you're up!" I heard one of my classmates yell.

I walked over to the starting line for the 100m sprint and got into the ready position with my feet against the foot support and my hands on the ground. I was vaguely aware of the more intense glares aimed in my direction...

"Go!" the coach fired the gun, and the other 5 sprinters and I leapt into action.

I ran for a few seconds, still flustered by the ongoing cold war... and promptly ended up tripping over a rock on the track.

"Waaah!" I shrieked as I went down..., hard and skidded a short distance. For a few seconds I just lay there face-down on the ground...

"Tsukihara-san! Are you alright?" the coach came running over.

I tried to climb to my feet, only to stagger back to the ground in pain as I clutched my knees... Owie...

"Oh, that's a bad scrape..." the coach muttered as my worried classmates gathered around me.

"Ow..." I whimpered as I tried to get up again. The pain shot through my knees, and I couldn't put enough strength into them to stand… OW!

"Don't push yourself... Someone, help Tsukihara-san to the infirmary!"

There was silence all around for a short moment. Nobody volunteered – the girls all hung back hesitantly, some were even outright glaring at me…

"Sensei, I'll do it."

Kyrius stepped out of the crowd and knelt beside me as he extended a hand.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

The glares… oh the glares… but I just nodded my acceptance, unable to speak as tears welled up in my eyes. Kyrius wrapped an arm around my waist and tried to help me up... but the pain struck again and I collapsed, unable to support my weight enough.

"Ugh... so that won't work…" he muttered and paused for a moment before stooping down. "I'll piggyback you to the infirmary."

I stared at him incredulously even as the murmuring started to get noisier. He beckoned, and I really didn't have much of a choice but to pull myself up and wrap my arms around his neck as he stood up and pulled my legs around to his sides. I blushed as my chest pressed against him, but he paid it no heed as he took off at a brisk pace with me on his back.

"Thanks… Kyrius-san," I whispered, still fighting the pain.

"Think nothing of it," he smiled.

"Am I… too heavy or anything?" I blushed ever brighter.

"Actually you're just fine, Miss Tsukihara."

"Kyrius-san… uh, can you please don't call me that? It feels too formal and you make me sound old when you say it," I mumbled.

"Uh… so what should I call you? I'm not used to Japanese honorifics and I'll probably forget to use them after a short while."

"Just… Yuki will do. In exchange I'll drop the –san when I call you, so it'll be just Kyrius."

"If that's okay with you… Mi… Yuki."

I smiled and buried my face into his hair so no one in the corridor could see the blush I was currently sporting that could've been bright enough to light up a whole classroom… This was embarrassing, but at the same time I… liked it. And when he called me by my nickname like that… It made me feel like I could do anything just for a moment. If only I hadn't tripped like that and gotten hurt so badly…

"How's your knee?" he asked.

"It still hurts… but it's a little better now," I tested my legs gently, wincing as the scraped part brushed against Kyrius's pants. It was bleeding quite badly, and left a bloodstain on it…

"Don't worry about getting me dirty or anything; what's important is making sure you're okay."

I smiled weakly as we passed by more people talking in the hallway, who paused to look at us. Kyrius was quite a bit more famous than he had originally thought, and quite a few girls had open jaws as they watched. I even noticed someone drop her books on the ground to stare, not even realizing her books had fallen on someone's foot.

I was pretty much going to be dead tomorrow from assassination by the aura of hate radiating from some of the girls... Plus I was easily recognisable thanks to my striking silver hair... Sometimes I really didn't like standing out like that.

"Yuki, we're here. Is anyone inside?"

There was no reply from inside the infirmary, so after a while Kyrius sighed and pushed the door open. We were greeted by the sight of a sterile white room with a row of beds along one side and cabinets along the other. The air conditioner in here kept the place cool at a steady temperature of 26 degrees Celsius.

Kyrius set me down on a spare bed slowly and carefully before walking off in search of a first aid kit. Soon he had found one and rummaged in it for a bit before coming out with a bottle of antiseptic, some cotton buds and a roll of bandages.

"Ow," I winced as Kyrius began applying the antiseptic.

"Hold still..." he murmured.

I blushed and tried to ignore the pain by focusing on Kyrius's face. When he was working like this, he wore a contorted expression that was actually quite cute to look at. The way his lips quirked, his eyes narrowed to focus on his subject...

I stopped that train of thought - wouldn't do well to go on fantasising about him.

"There, all done," he wiped a few beads of sweat off his brow.

"Thanks..." I smiled as he closed the first-aid kit and put it back on a shelf.

"No problem... How're your legs now?"

"I'm feeling much better now," I stretched my legs a bit. They still hurt, but at least the wounds wouldn't brush against anything and cause me pain.

"That's good to know..." he sighed. "Does it still hurt?"

"A little, but it's more bearable now."

"How did you trip over so badly?"

"I was a little... occupied with my thoughts and wasn't paying attention to the track," I could hardly tell him that the stares from HIS fan club were responsible for making me so flustered...

"You need to be more careful," he chided as he sat down beside me on the bedside.

"I know..." I ducked my head in embarrassment, the blush on my cheeks intensifying.

He chuckled lightly and patted me on my shoulder gently.

"I'll go look for the nurse," he stood up to leave and walked out the door.

I let out a deep breath I hadn't even realized I had been holding in. Kyrius made me feel all fuzzy inside sometimes..., It was a different feel from Ryusei - his was a more protective aura that made me want to sink into his embrace. Kyrius's... I wasn't quite sure.

Just as I was about to lie down to get some well-needed rest when the door was flung open roughly and a girl I didn't recognize walked in. She sported long blonde hair in twin ponytails going down to her mid-back and had a... dignified look about her. She wore the standard uniform for our school, but had apparently decreased the length of the blazer's sleeves to elbow length to expose her slender arms a little.

"Ohohoho! How pathetic, you can't even take a fall like a real lady and not get injured?"

Already this new girl was starting to really get on my nerves as she stood at the foot of my bed haughtily with her arms crossed. But that voice sounded familiar... that laugh too...

"Still, I won't forgive you for tarnishing Kyrius-sama's chastity, you insult the pride of us members of his fan club!"

... I knew it... Rabid fangirl...

"I am going to give you a warning, you thieving silver-haired slut... Don't get close to Kyrius-sama again! He is the property of the Kyrius-sama fan club and he should not be corrupted by people like you! Ohohoho! Remember my name, Hoseki Takanashi!"

Oh... now I knew who she was... Of all people to meet, I just had to run into Gold Virgo, didn't I? That obnoxious laugh was a dead giveaway... And I'd remember that high-pitched voice anywhere.

Luckily she left without doing anything to me - I just kept silent and feigned being asleep so she wouldn't recognize my voice. And so I had an excuse to be close to Kyrius. Plus, I now knew Gold Virgo's true identity. Hoseki Takanashi... Gems? How... appropriate. Fitting for her obnoxious personality.

The door slid open again, this time to admit Kyrius and a tall woman in a nurse's uniform. I smiled warmly to greet them as they walked towards me.

It didn't take long - half an hour later my knees looked like new after the nanobot treatment and I could walk again. Kyrius stayed with me until I was ready to go again. The nurse advised me to avoid running for half a day or so until I completely healed. We left after thanking her profusely - she just smiled at us and waved us off back to classes.

Only... when I reentered the classroom, I felt a dark aura around most of the other girls in the class... And the atmosphere was definitely thick enough to kill... Eep. I shrunk back a bit and tried to hide behind Kyrius, but that just made the situation worse.

"Tsukihara-kun, I heard of your accident during PE just know. Please take your seat and we'll continue the lesson. Igzelier-kun, thank you for watching over her."

"It was nothing, sensei. She's our classmate after all."

I noticed how Kyrius used the word ' our' to try and placate the other girls. Indeed, the mood lightened a bit, but it was still scary being in here with all those hostile eyes boring holes into me... I shuddered in fear.

As I took my seat, I saw Kyrius flash a smile at me, and I smiled back at him weakly even as the tension in the air began to grow again. I wondered if I would be able to last the rest of the day without being attacked... Haha...

But even by the first period, there was hate mail landing in my inbox, filling it up. I eventually had enough after a few messages dropped hints about me seducing Kyrius into submission, and rerouted all messages with the word Kyrius in them into my spam folder. It didn't stop all of the messages, but I got considerably less to filter out.

Several times for the rest of the day, those other girls were startled by teachers when asked questions, and ended up not being able to answer. I was one of the few functional girls for the rest of the day that weren't trying to drown me in spam. The glares only seemed to intensify as time passed…

_Save me, anyone!_

I was pretty sure that only the presence of the social cameras prevented people from just up and dropping hate mail into my locker... but at any rate I was just happy the day was over. When the last bell had rung and the teacher had left, I had quickly exited the class and gone straight for my locker to get my shoes and go home.

Somehow I managed to blend in with a crowd while just exiting the school compound, and hopefully lost any would-be pursuers. I heaved a sigh of relief as I rounded a corner...

*squish*

I looked down and noticed that I had stepped on... someone. Someone who was lying face-down on the path wearing a uniform clearly belonging to my school. The guy had black hair somehow styled in an ordered mess of tangles that appeared to look stylish... What had happened to him? Why was he lying on the road?

"Are... Are you okay?" I knelt down and asked, a little hesitantly.

"D... Don't mind me..."

"Uh, that won't do... Here, take my hand," I reached my hand towards him, intending to help him up.

He grasped it without hesitation and was suddenly standing upright with nary a scratch on his person despite his odd position earlier...

"Oh, ye fair maiden, saviour of my unworthy, pitiful life... How will I ever repay you?" he spouted without warning.

I blinked in surprise, rendered speechless by his words - what the heck was he going on about?

"Perhaps if you would deign to let me hear but thy name, fair silver-haired maiden?"

"Uh... Um..."

"Oh beautiful maiden, I can understand your speechlessness... Allow me, the one and only Uehara Sanno to cure you by administering my special kiss..."

...

*thwack*

"So you're just a pervert!" I huffed and stomped off in a right fit, leaving behind a pervert clutching himself in the place where it hurt him the most...

I paused, and then went back and slapped him once in the face for good measure before going back on my way home, more annoyed than anything at the pervert who had just tried to step my first kiss... Gah, just thinking about it infuriated me! I stomped off angrily, drawing a bit of attention from some of the onlookers.

Feeling thirsty, I reached for the water bottle I usually had hanging on my bag, but it wasn't there... Ugh, I must've left it at the school in my hurry to leave. Great, just great... Now I'd have to go back and get it - that was one of my favourite bottles after all...

I turned back mid-stride and after a while found myself back at the corner where I had run into that pervert Sanno. Much to my surprise, he was lying on the ground again, and just as I was about to call him out for it, a familiar brunette rounded the corner and promptly stepped on the guy again.

I watched in exasperation as Sanno launched on another tirade after Inoha offered to help him up... I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, but going by the exaggerated movements the pervert was making and Inoha's impatient eye-rolling, it was pretty easy to guess that he was trying the same thing he pulled on me earlier.

A while later, Inoha aimed a kick at his crown jewels and connected painfully before walking off with an irritated huff. I watched with an amused smile on my face as she noticed me and ran over to me waving.

"You left your bottle behind!" she held up my missing water bottle.

I grinned and took it from her, hanging it from my bag.

"Can you believe the nerve of that creep who tried to pick me up just now?" she growled in irritation.

"He tried the same thing on me..." I shrugged. "I kicked him in the exact same spot and slapped him across his face."

"Explains the red handprint on his face," Inoha laughed.

"Thanks for bringing me my bottle by the way," I smiled.

"No problem. What are friends for?" she beamed widely as her eyes lit up.

We parted ways after a bit as Inoha lived in a different part of the city. I thought of paying a visit to the nearby shopping mall to see if there was anything new... Hmm, maybe later - I wanted to finish my homework and do some quick revision first. Not to mention I had to change out of my uniform and put my dirty jersey and track pants in to wash... My brother was sure to notice and ask why.

_Well, no harm done,_ I mused as I walked into the apartment lobby and headed towards the lift. If he was at home, at least...

"Oh, you're back!"

Yup, he was. "Tadaima, onii-chan," I greeted him.

"Okaeri, Yukina," Ryusei grinned. "Anything interesting happened today while I was off lazing at home?"

"Well... I kinda tripped, fell and scraped my legs badly..."

"Yikes," he winced. "But it looks okay now, so you got it fixed up?"

"Yeah. I'm fine now, but the nurse advised me to stay away from sports for a short while to let it completely heal."

"Okay... Leave the heavy stuff to me for a bit then, if you even have anything that heavy to do."

"Nothing really comes to mind... The heaviest thing I do in the house is lifting cooking pots."

"Right then. I really don't have much to do around the house today... No battles today?l

"None at all. It's been a surprisingly... quiet today," I shook my head. "I was thinking of going to the mall later, wanna come along?"

"Why not?" Ryusei looked happy to be finally doing something else besides lounging around idly.

He quickly ran off into his room to change into more presentable clothes - one could hardly go walking around in public in nothing but a singlet and boxers after all. I blushed at the mental image of that.

While he was changing, I also went into my room and opened the closet. Within 5 minutes, I had changed into a white dress going down to my knees with two dark leather belts hanging slack around the waist in a crossed pattern. On top of that I added a dark blue half-jacket and tied my hair into twin high ponytails on the back of my head while letting a long bang of hair hang down the right side of my face.

Ryusei whistled when I walked out of my room dressed to impress. He had a white T-shirt on underneath a black hooded jacket, matched with a pair of dark blue jeans. It gave him a pretty cool look especially when he had a black wristband with elaborate symbols woven into it.

"You look smashing, my dear little sister," he remarked.

"Thank you, you look quite nice yourself, my dear onii-chan," I grinned at him.

"Why thank you. Now, would you allow me the honour of escorting you to the shopping mall, my princess?" he performed an exaggerated mock bow that had me fighting to keep myself from laughing out loud.

"I shall deign to let you escort me, my prince in shining armour," I returned with a royal curtsey and offered him my hand.

We left the apartment in stitches from laughing too much.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Almost done with Chapter 4 - time to post Chapter 3!**

**Chapter 3**

"Wow, this is pretty awesome," Ryusei declared as we set foot into the large shopping mall.

"I know, right?" I smiled as I hung onto his arm affectionately.

"I mean... where I was, the malls had different feels to them and they were always packed to the brim with shoppers that it's hard to move around," he complained. "Here it's a lot more relaxed and less congested."

"There's plenty of stuff here to look at. Maybe you could go for some new clothes?" I suggested. "We can find somewhere to eat dinner at later too, since we're here anyway."

"Good idea... My treat, Yuki-chan. Everything we buy today's on my tab - I can stretch my finances a bit more than you can after all."

"But, onii-chan-"

"No buts, my little sister. You need to save up for the future, and we did just get reunited after all. Think of it as a way to celebrate that," he cut me off mid-sentence with a wide grin.

I sighed and reluctantly acquiesced to his order. I didn't want to feel like I was troubling him after all...

"Now, to start this shopping trip off, how about I buy you some chocolate ice cream? To satisfy that sweet tooth of yours."

I couldn't manage to entirely hide the tranquil, vacant expression that overtook my features at that moment.

"No fair, onii-chan..." I muttered. "You get to bribe me while I can't bribe you..."

"And that's what big brothers are for," he laughed.

5 minutes later I was enjoying a double scoop chocolate ice cream with a topping of caramel, cream and nuts. I licked away at it blissfully unaware of wherever Ryusei was taking me, but I trusted him anyway - I knew he'd never bring me anywhere dangerous.

"You know, you have a very cute expression on when you're eating ice cream."

"Hehe..." I giggled. Wait, that voice... that wasn't Ryusei...

I turned and found myself staring at a short black-haired youth with spiky black hair slicked backwards wearing a green collared T-shirt with a pair of matching light brown cargo pants. He smiled cheekily at me with his sparkling blue eyes...

"Tsurugi? What are you doing here?" I gasped.

"Shopping of course, Yukina," he grinned.

Tsurugi Takaya, one of my best friends when I was in primary school. He was a year younger than me, but we still played together quite often in those days... Now we went to different high schools, but still stayed in contact with one another through emails.

And he was also a Burst Linker since a few months ago. Cerulean Blitz focused on high-speed barrier-shattering attacks, with a Distortion Field ability that allowed him to simply punch through energy barriers and augmented resonant gauntlets that he used to shatter physical shields. After I introduced Brain Burst to him, he had taken to it like a duck to water. He was a natural at it - I couldn't deny it.

While still at level 2 because he was afraid of a significant loss taking too many Burst Points away, he was competing against people twice his level and winning pretty regularly.

"Oh, if it isn't Tsurugi-kun. How're you doing?" Ryusei rejoined us.

"Ryusei-san! I haven't seen you in a long while!"

"You've grown quite a lot haven't you? When I last saw you, you were just a wee little tyke going up to... around here?" my brother raised his hand to just a little above his waist.

"Sadly I'm still a wee little tyke as you put it," Tsurugi shook his head sadly. "I think it's in my genes."

"Don't worry about it too much, some girls like short guys like you," I giggled.

He gave a light chuckle in reply. "Yukina, I think that might only be because they themselves are short."

"Really? I don't have that many girl friends to have girl talk sessions with, so I don't know."

"I guess you're the wrong girl to ask," Tsurugi sighed.

"True. Anyway, what were you here to get?"

"A couple of books and texts for a school project I'm working on. Have some researching to do... thank goodness I have Brain Burst - it'd take a helluva lot of time to complete otherwise."

"I know the feeling... I use it for homework myself," I smiled.

Ryusei grinned.

"I wish I had it, it'd make my work that much easier."

"What do you work as, Ryusei-san?"

"Technical advisor for Shindai Technologies Incorporated. They recently set up a branch here so they sent me here to work."

"Okay... Uh, Yukina, want to get in a tag battle after we're done?"

"Why not?" I smiled. "I need to relieve some stress and test out some new toys I got after levelling up."

"Wait, that makes you level what now?"

"Level 5."

"Cool. Will I be able to take on the kind of opponents you fight?"

"Hopefully. You're great with those barrier-shattering and shield-breaking attacks after all," I nodded. "Plus, with your high speed in-your-face combat style you're going to be better at pinning them down than I am with my landmines and long-range suppression fire."

Tsurugi guffawed at my description of his combat style.

"Language, Yuki-chan!" my brother admonished.

"Sorry..." I mock-pouted to the resounding laughter of Ryusei and Tsurugi.

"Anyway, I think we have some shopping to do. Meet back here after we're done?"

"Gotcha. See you in a bit!" Tsurugi waved as he walked off and disappeared into the crowds.

"Well then, shall we get going ourselves?" Ryusei took my hand as I finished the last bit of my ice cream cone. "I couldn't buy any clothes without your fashion expertise."

"I'm no expert with fashion," I turned up my nose at my brothers statement. "But I can prevent you from turning into a walking fashion disaster..."

"Just as I hoped, my dear little sister," he grinned.

* * *

It was another hour before we met back up and unsurprisingly Tsurugi was there waiting for us, sitting on the side of a nearby fountain enjoying a sundae. He didn't notice as we approached him, and I was half-tempted to attack his ribs but considering where he was and what he was eating, I dismissed it as a bad idea.

I did like messing with him, but not to the point of dumping him into a pool of water or pushing his face into his ice cream.

"We're back!" I sat down beside Tsurugi, smiling.

"Welcome back!" he grinned at me before scooping a bit more of his sundae into his mouth.

"Shall I sign us up for a tag battle?" I asked.

"Go ahead. I'll accept when you send me the invite."

I brought up the Brain Burst menu on my Neuro-Linker and navigated to the tag battle menu to set up a team. Cerulean Blitz was already on the list of available partners, so I sent him an invite. I didn't have to wait long - Tsurugi raised a finger and pressed a button on his interface, and we established our team.

"Should we wait for someone to challenge us, or issue the challenge ourselves?" I asked Tsurugi.

"Why not just issue it ourselves? I don't really feel like waiting for someone to challenge us," he suggested.

"Alright then... Burst on the count of 3," I lifted my hand. "1," my index finger went up.

"2. 3."

"Burst Link!" the two of us said simultaneously.

Instantly the would around us froze and turned blue in colour. I stepped out of my physical body in the form of my elegant normal-use avatar clad in the white dress. Standing beside me was a teenager with spiky black hair dressed in a white shirt and blue slacks with a loose, unbuttoned black jacket on his torso. His hair had a shock of white, while a ring of keys hung around his neck. He also had a large key the size of a broom on his back.

"Still obsessed with keys?" I sighed, a little exasperated by the sight of the oversized key on his back.

"Hey! It's my way of paying homage to the Kingdom Hearts series, okay?" he protested.

"That ancient series of games? I don't get why you still play that when you have Brain Burst."

"Brain Burst can't exactly kill time now, can it?" he pointed out.

"Eh, good point," I mumbled resignedly. "Anyway, I'll bring up the opponent list now."

I opened the Brain Burst menu and navigated to the tag battle lobby to check the available contestants. Hmm... GEH, Gold Virgo was here... didn't recognize her partner Maroon Diver, but I sure as hell wasn't going to fight her again if I could help it.

Oh, Teal Fencer was in the lobby too. Paired with some level 2 called Midnight Gunslinger. Teal Fencer himself was level 6... Whoa, two levels higher than me back then and he had still lost so badly to Shadow Phantom! My goodness! But then again it had been luck in my case when he hit a landmine... and Shadow Phantom himself was crazy strong after all...

But I had missed out on seeing his skills during that match because of the very quick win, so I had to admit I was interested in facing him. Together, Tsurugi and I had a combined level of 7 against their 8, but we were both quite good so the single level difference shouldn't be too much of a problem.

"Are these two fine?"

"Yup. Finally, some action," Tsurugi grinned devilishly as he cracked his knuckles. I grinned back at him as the Duel button dropped into view on chains, and I tapped the button once before standing back and watching as we entered the Accelerated World.

* * *

I stood on the rooftop of a building surveying the landscape. Futuristic city... Just what I needed, floaty buildings and billboards getting in the way of my shots. I sighed and rested my gun on the ground tiredly. I hated this battlefield, seriously. Too many moving obstacles, too much cover... I'd definitely be using more of my gun's howitzer mode, and I had to be immobile to use it, which left me vulnerable.

Beside me stood a tall avatar in slender blue body armour. Several antennae extended from the back of his suit, generating light crackles of electricity between them as they distorted the air around them. Covering his hands were large heavy-looking resonance gauntlets with the same antennae protruding out the front.

The antennae were what projected his Distortion Field, and had the added effect of being able to dissipate energy damage which came in very useful against other Burst Linkers relying on energy weapons.

"So we're up against a close-ranged combatant and a mid-ranged one, judging by the names. Gunslinger probably doesn't have long-ranged weapons, but you never know in this game."

"Yeah. This map probably isn't too good for sniping either. Going for a more direct approach?"

"Do I have a choice?" I shrugged. "I do have my new toys that'll probably help a lot in close combat though."

My new point defence turrets were swivelling around on my shoulders quickly, stopping every now and then as if looking for targets.

"Enough talking. Tsurugi, see if you can engage Teal Fencer in a one-on-one fight. Leave the gunslinger to me," I ordered.

"Got it," the blue-clad figure flashed me a 'peace' sign with a hand and turned into a high-speed blur that sped off down the side of the building to ground level.

"No matter how many times I see him do that, he never fails to remind me of Sonic..." I muttered absent-mindedly as I shifted my gun into gatling mode. My gun had visibly upgraded after I had levelled up – it was now much longer and even the gatling mode now had twin sets of six barrels each. The default sniper form sported a longer and wider barrel, while I hadn't tested out the other forms yet.

I studied the location indicator to find both our opponents to my 1 o'clock position. Grinning, I activated my Scrambling ability to confuse the enemy's location indicators and began with my usual tactic of dropping sensor pods everywhere in the unlikeliest of places. Even if I couldn't use my Alpha Strike attack to take out both of them in one shot, I still had Railgun Strike and that needed targeting information from the pods to work effectively in this terrain. Granted it would only work once, then they'd learn to watch my special bar for it, but it was enough.

I just needed to decide who was a bigger threat first. Teal Fencer or Midnight Gunslinger?

_"Engaging the bluey."_

I chuckled as I heard Tsurugi call in over the team chat. Sure enough, Tsurugi's and Teal Fencer's location indicators were pointed in the same direction and I could hear loud clashing sounds coming from that direction. Midnight Gunslinger in comparison had his indicator pointed in a slightly different direction.

"Look out for the blackie – he's probably providing cover fire for the bluey," I said as I stood up and fired a grappling hook at a taller building not too far away. My Scrambling wore off, and I quickly reapplied it as I jumped over to that building and seeded another sensor pod under some heating pipes.

It didn't seem quick enough though, I looked up off the roof and saw a black figure approaching me, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Must've been looking for me just as my Scrambling wore off just now... Oh well. I quickly dropped a couple of landmines around the roof and using my grappling hook, pinned a sensor pod to the wall of a nearby building as well. More sensor pods attached to building walls as I attached them onto the ends of my grappling hooks and fired them off.

The one behind me went off on my HUD, and I looked around to see the black figure standing before me, his hands holding revolvers with large barrels, and also with blades attached to the ends of the grips. The character was distinctively male, going by his body shape. His black armour looked thin and mobile, while the half-visor covering only the right side of his helmet allowed a purple eye to shine through.

"I don't know why Teal Fencer suggested I go up against the girl three levels higher than I am…" he grumbled as he aimed his revolvers at me.

"How about we just oblige him then? Come at me with everything you have!" I declared as I rolled aside and brought my gatling gun to bear. By then he was already moving, and firing large shells at me using his twin revolvers… Wait, these were 75mm antitank high-explosive shells! Talk about big guns… those revolvers were basically mini tank guns.

The shells buried themselves in the ground, kicking up large volumes of dust and debris. Midnight Gunslinger popped into cover behind a water tank before poking back out and continuing to fire at me. Of course that didn't mean much considering I was moving around to make myself a harder target to hit. On one occasion he fired off a shell at me that I batted right back at him using my gun. He didn't quite manage to react in time, and the shell exploded in his face, throwing him back into a wall.

He recovered surprisingly quickly and was soon back on his feet blasting away with the revolvers as he closed in. Whenever he used up his entire 6-round cylinder, he would just speedload the revolver using speedloaders embedded in his palms that would produce the shells he needed and just ram them into the empty drum. Quite a handy way to reload, I mused. Not that I needed it, though. Early on I had added auto-reloading to my gun so I wouldn't need to switch magazines when I ran out of ammo.

All of a sudden, one of the rounds that exploded in front of me released a large amount of smoke, and I quickly brought up my gatling gun and began spraying all around me to discourage him from using the smoke for cover to get in closer. I could tell it worked because of the loud yell coming from outside the smokescreen. That done, I jumped vertically upwards high into the air to get out of the smoke, grabbing hold of a billboard that just happened to be floating past on the way down.

Almost immediately it was perforated by the massive bullets being fired from Midnight Gunslinger's revolver, and I had to jump off as the floating billboard began to lose altitude. As I landed on the rooftop of another nearby building I rolled right into a run smoothly and ran off in Teal Fencer's direction.

_"Dammit, Yukina, this guy is tough! He's a speedy avatar too, so he's too used to speed for me to land a good hit on him. Can we swap?"_

"Heading your way now, Tsurugi. Can you hold out until I arrive?"

_"Of course I can!" _he replied indignantly.

I jumped another rooftop with Midnight Gunslinger hot on my tail - he apparently could use his revolvers to fire grappling hooks, and was firing at me as he chased me. My point-defence guns were lighting up and targeting the oversized bullets as I activated them, so none of the bullets even managed to get within two feet of me. Helped that his rate of fire was quite slow.

One of Midnight Gunslinger's shells flew ahead of me and detonated to release a weighted net that dropped towards me. I bent my knees and made a powerful jump forward, allowing me to clear the net before it pinned me to the ground.

Behind me I heard the irate gunslinger swear at me.

"Language, mister!" I giggled as I cleared another rooftop with a jump combined with a grappling hook.

As I flew towards the other rooftop, I fired another grappling hook at a large billboard on it. I waited for just the right moment as I saw Midnight Gunslinger's grappling hook hit the wall ahead of me, and gave a hard yank on it. The billboard tore free and hurtled towards my pursuer while I tucked myself in a ball to avoid getting hit myself.

The billboard cleared my head by mere inches as Midnight Gunslinger let out a surprised shout. That was followed by a loud clang, and then a thunk as the billboard hit the wall with a Midnight Gunslinger-shaped mound on it.

I chuckled lightly - he wasn't dead yet, just stunned. Likely for long enough for me to get to Tsurugi.

"Slammed him into a wall using a billboard. Still holding out?"

_"Took you long enough! Bluey here is starting to get the feel for my speed!"_

"Sorry, but there was an annoying blackie hot on my tail."

I only nodded as I continued crossing rooftops at my highest speed possible. It didn't seem like Midnight Gunslinger would be coming after me anytime soon, but I seeded a few sensor pods just in case.

It didn't take me long to arrive at the location of the other fight, but I halted myself - Tsurugi had lured his opponent into a wide open field, to better allow me to use my long-range firepower to the max. I quickly switched to sniper mode and set up on a rooftop overlooking the plaza.

"In position for a shot at Teal Fencer."

I watched as the bluish-green duel avatar lashed out with his rapiers, tripping Tsurugi over. He recovered very quickly though and was back on the move as quickly as he had been tripped. A flying gauntlet was knocked aside by another well-placed parry as Teal Fencer promptly smashed the butt of his rapier into Cerulean Blitz's gut.

_"That hurt..."_ he groaned.

I chose that moment to pull the trigger on my gun. Still Teal Fencer heard me firing and spun aside, catching the bullet in his left elbow at the last moment. He lost an arm, but was still in the fight as he reached the stub to his back...

And moved it back into view, this time with a large lance attached to it.

_"I bet there's some kind of weapon hidden in that."_

I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger a few more times. This time, the bluish-green duel avatar raised his lance and sections of it extended outwards and began projecting an energy field that expanded outwards into an umbrella shape. My shots deflected harmlessly off the shield.

"I hate energy barriers..." I muttered, irritated.

At that moment, Cerulean Blitz collected energy into his gauntlets, and the antennae on it extended outwards as bolts of blue electricity began sparking between them. A shimmering field of energy came into existence around the gauntlets that distorted the very air it occupied...

"Take this! Distortion Shatter!"

With a loud roar, Cerulean Blitz appeared right in front of the energy shield and punched it once, then another with his other hand. The barrier cracked on the first punch, and with the second it completely shattered, throwing Teal Fencer back into a wall and destroying his lance.

I whooped in joy, but had to quickly break off my engagement as my sensor pods alerted me to an approaching Midnight Gunslinger.

"Give him hell, Yukina!" Tsurugi sped past me, his duel avatar nothing but a blue blur.

I nodded in acquiescence and levelled my sniper rifle at the recovering Teal Fencer. He recovered just as I fired, however, and immediately dodged aside as the round flew though the space his head had occupied mere milliseconds before, and buried itself into the wall.

"So, you're the girl who drew with that _Phantom_ even at a lower level than him?" Teal Fencer practically spat out the word 'Phantom' in disdain.

I was a little taken aback by his venomous tone, but I quickly recovered. "Bingo."

"You're good, I'll give you that... Never have I been so humiliated in one single battle..."

"I was watching," I said flatly.

"Don't interrupt me!" he levelled his remaining rapier at me. "Yet you managed to fight him to an impasse... My master will be pleased when I take you a notch off that high horse of yours!"

"I'm not flaunting my victory against Shadow Phantom..."

"SHUT UP! EN GARDE!" Teal Fencer let out an enraged roar as he charged right towards me with his rapier raised.

I raised my gun and quickly deflected the blow. As Teal Fencer came back around for another stab, I spun my gun around and bashed him in the back of his head.

He quickly got back up - I wondered how he could do that with only one arm - just as I stepped backwards. This time he was a bit more wary, choosing instead to use a special attack, by the looks of his depleting special bar.

"Rain of a Thousand Swallows!" the bluish-green duel avatar howled as he began jabbing at me with the rapier at high speed, his remaining arm but a blur in his frenzied jabbing.

I backflipped into the air even as I set my point-defence guns to shoot at the ground ahead of the guy while dispensing a cluster of landmines. The bullets threw up clouds of dust and debris on impact, obscuring the ground even as Teal Fencer attacked directly through the dust cloud recklessly, still in the middle of performing his special attack...

And promptly walked right into the landmines in his blind rage.

The resulting explosion blew off a leg and sent him flying once again into a wall... hard.

"That was rather... anticlimactic," I mused as I surveyed the damage I had done to the guy in that attack. His armour was in pieces and was flaking apart, while his helmet was cracked open to reveal the white eyes of his duel avatar. He wasn't quite dead yet - he only had a bit of health left.

"Attacking blindly like that just gets you killed..." I sighed. "When you lose your cool, you've already lost half the battle."

"Yukina! I'm done!" I heard Tsurugi call out to me, and turned around to face him, smiling as he came running towards me.

In my moment of distraction, I didn't quite notice when Teal Fencer got up. Tsurugi did, however, and immediately vanished into a blur as he sped past me. I whirled around to look for him, and saw him bent behind Teal Fencer, his hands clasped together with his index and middle fingers outstretched...

Teal Fencer was making to throw his rapier at me, but Tsurugi was much faster.

"A Thousand Years of Pain!"

I smacked my face in exasperation as Teal Fencer's howl of pain reverberated through the air and echoed to the heavens...

* * *

"Was that absolutely necessary, Tsurugi?" I chided as I disconnected the direct link cable.

"What? I wanted to end it in style..." he whistled innocently.

"What did he do?" Ryusei asked curiously.

"Thousand Years of Pain," I winced at the thought. That move... definitely hurt.

"Ouch."

"I don't envy the guy who got hit by it."

"Well he deserved it for trying to ambush Yukina..." Tsurugi complained.

Ryusei raised a curious eyebrow.

I pointed at Tsurugi, "He distracted me."

Tsurugi looked like someone had kicked his favourite puppy as he pouted at me.

"What? It's true!" I let an amused smile creep across my face.

"Well sorry about that… I made up for it though, right?" he grinned.

"Try not to interrupt me again just before I beat the other guy, okay?" I sighed.

"Tsurugi, if my cute little sister is forced to uninstall Brain Burst because of a mistake you made…" Ryusei left the sentence hanging to maximize its effect as he glared at Tsurugi. Just as the poor guy began to gulp in discomfort, Ryusei's features softened and he gave him a large grin. "And nice one pulling a Thousand Years of Pain on that idiot."

I smiled at Ryusei's protectiveness – he looked like he was joking, but really he was sending a message not to mess me up or else the big brother would step in… forcefully. Tsurugi was still flinching a little even as he gave my brother a weak smile.

"Don't scare him too much, onii-chan..." I giggled.

"What? It's my job when oto-san and oka-san aren't around!" he complained.

"I consider Tsurugi more of a little brother than a boyfriend, you know..." I sighed. "He's always treated me like a big sister to boot."

"Well, can't blame a brother for being overprotective of his sister now..."

I chuckled as Ryusei scratched his head apologetically. Tsurugi just watched the byplay wearing an amused expression on his face.

"Sorry kid."

"No worries, Ryusei-san."

"So... how's your new gear handling, Yuki?" Ryusei asked.

"Works like a charm. One of our opponents was using slow-reloading high-calibre weaponry, so all the better to intercept."

"Good to know. You can manually designate targets for the point-defence guns, right? Try having them shoot into enemy gun barrels - that'll mess them up good," Ryusei grinned devilishly.

I couldn't help but smile at the effect he was intending to achieve with something like that - most people wouldn't even dare to pop off their shots with enemy bullets jammed up their gun barrels. Would be interesting to watch them try though.

"I'll keep that in mind," I nodded.

"Anyway, I have to go... Thanks for the tag battle, Yukina! It was nice seeing you again!" Tsurugi waved as he stood up.

"So soon? See you around, Tsurugi!"

"You should come visit us sometime, kid."

"You're living together now? I know your address, maybe I'll drop by in a few days."

"Got it! See you then!" I waved cheerfully as Tsurugi faded into the crowd.

It didn't take too long to get the rest of our shopping done - I wasn't as crazy about fashion as other girls. My fashion sense was just about getting the job done nicely instead of looking absolutely perfect after all... He seemed happy enough with my choices, so no problems there, I hoped.

Overall Ryusei got at least 6 sets of clothes of various styles - the set I liked most was a white shirt paired with a black short-sleeved jacket and dark brown long pants. He did insist on buying me something though, so I got a dark blue blouse matched with a white skirt with two belts crossed on the front.

My initial choice had been just a simple, cheap shirt, but then he had insisted on splurging on his favourite little sister...

As if that wasn't enough, he bought me a cosy light brown jacket for when winter came along... I hugged it closely as we walked back towards the commuter station - it just felt so comfy! My brother looked on proudly as he paid our fare and led me onto the railcar gently.

"Need me to go over the replay of that battle with you?" he asked.

"Not really. It went well enough... I just underestimated Teal Fencer and ended up putting Tsurugi in a tight spot against him. He came out okay once we swapped opponents," I sighed.

"Yuki..." Ryusei said in a low tone.

I froze up - that voice never bode well even for his favourite little sister... "Y-yes?"

"Never ever make assumptions that your opponent is weaker than you are. When you go into a fight, you give it all you have regardless of how weak your opponent may seem. No mercy - who knows what people may be hiding?"

I looked away from my brother, trying not to meet his stern gaze...

"More so as a commander - how many battles in history have been lost due to one general underestimating the other? Assuming the other guy is weaker than you are is just going to make an ass out of you and me."

"Sorry..." I hurriedly apologised, still trying not to look at my brother.

I heard a sigh followed by, "Yuki..."

I slowly turned to face Ryusei, only to find a finger poking my cheek as I turned.

"What gives?" I blinked in surprise.

"Don't look so down, Yuki-chan!" he grinned playfully as he removed his finger and flicked it at my forehead.

"Ow!" I yelped as I put a hand to it, glaring at my brother who was trying to rein in his laughter unsuccessfully. "Onii-chan! That was mean!"

"Couldn't help it, you're no fun to tease!" he laughed.

I puffed my cheeks out and pouted at him.

"That expression is priceless!"

"Onii-chan!" I complained, but I was already having trouble holding in my own laughter. Within moments my mask had broken and I was laughing along with my brother - not too loudly of course lest we disturb the other passengers.

"Ahh, that was a good laugh!" Ryusei said once he regained normal use of his mouth. "Seriously though, I don't want you to lose Brain Burst over some random mistake. I want you to live your life having all the fun you can, and I can see that Brain Burst is quite important to achieve that."

"Thanks, onii-chan," I smiled as I wiped some tears of mirth from my cheeks. "That means a lot to me."

"Don't mention it!" Ryusei grinned. "That's my job after all."

I smiled - one thing my brother was good at was defusing situations like these. When I was about to cry, he'd always find some way to get my spirits back up. I had to content myself with being spoiled so long as Ryusei was at home too - he simply wouldn't have it any other way.

"How about we go have dinner? I know a good ramen stall not too far from our house," I suggested as I looked out the window.

"Well that's a good idea. I'm absolutely starving!" my brother vehemently agreed.

**AN: More OCs joining the fray! This chapter is a bit shorter than I expected, so I might be going back to this in the future and extending the fight scene.**

**Also, thanks for the fave and reviews! =)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Sorry, no AW fights this chapter, but there's a little action in the RW. =)**

**Chapter 4**

It was with heavy eyelids that I woke up the next day. A yawn escaped my lips as I forced myself to sit up. Sunlight shone brightly through the thin curtains closed in front of the window in my room, falling just short of my bed. I gazed outside dumbly as my brain restarted itself after a good night's sleep.

It was another five minutes before I was conscious enough to get out of bed, albeit reluctantly. A quick bath sobered me up before I went to put on some clothes. Today I had promised to go out with some of my friends, and I wanted to at least look presentable.

"Heading out?" Ryusei walked into the living room yawning. He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, promoting me to blush as I ran my eyes over his athletic body.

"Put on some clothes!" I tossed a pillow that had been lying on a couch at him. He returned to the guest room muttering under his breath about sisters who couldn't take a little exposure, at which I threw another pillow at him.

Sighing, I picked up both pillows and put them back on the couch as Ryusei came walking back out in a shirt and shorts. A lot more respectable attire, I decided. He was grinning cheekily as he kept his hands behind his back...

I quickly ducked his pillow throw and launched the two I had just returned to the couch at him in one go. One fell short while the other hit him in the face.

"Oh that's it, you little buster..." he mock-growled as he grabbed the pillows and threw them back at me.

The situation dissolved into an all-out pillow war, though we both took special care not to destroy them. Mostly I was the one landing the hits thanks to a few Burst Links here and there - I knew I was being wasteful and childish, but I just couldn't help getting too caught up in the scuffle.

After about 10 minutes of tossing pillows back and fourth me collapsed onto the couch panting. I checked the clock hovering in my HUD, finding that I still had a good period of time before my appointment. With a giggle I whacked Ryusei upside the head with a pillow and quickly moved away before he could retaliate.

He chuckled heartily and threw the pillow back at me, only for me to dodge it again.

"No fair, you have Brain Burst," he grumbled good-naturedly.

"I wasn't using it all the time..." I huffed playfully as I punched him lightly in the ribs.

"You probably should get going soon if you're in a hurry," Ryusei smiled.

I glanced at the clock floating on my HUD once again. Not much time lost, just a few minutes. But hey, couldn't hurt to be early. We were meeting at a nearby shopping district anyway so there'd be plenty of things to see - no getting bored there!

"I suppose," I shrugged. "Are you going anywhere today?"

"Nope. I'll just be chilling out at home enjoying instant ramen," my brother smirked.

"While I'll be eating fancy food outside," I couldn't resist the jibe at him - he was now shooting me a wounded look, the playfulness in his eyes completely ruining it.

"Alright, alright! Go have fun with your friends and leave this aging, moulding brother of yours at home..." he pouted.

I socked him in the chest gently, eliciting a light-hearted chuckle from him.

"Then I'm heading out, onii-chan!" I called out as I headed for the door.

"Have a safe trip!" he waved vigorously. I waved back cheerfully as I exited the house.

* * *

How I got into this situation I didn't quite understand though... All I remembered was walking out of my apartment building, and after walking for a short while, something hit me and the darkness claimed me until I woke up gagged and blindfolded, without my Neuro-Linker...

I stayed quiet for as long as I could trying to detect where I was. All I could pick up were the sounds of shuffling feet, clinking objects that sounded like they came from weapons... There was also the traffic passing outside, but that could come from anywhere...

The place smelled musty and decrepit, probably some old, unused building. I inwardly groaned at my situation - couldn't they have chosen to put me somewhere more civilised instead of this dump?

"She's not waking up, boss."

"Shut it, whelp. She'll come around - we didn't knock her out that hard."

On the contrary I could feel a warm trickle of blood coming down the back of my neck... Not that hard? Blasphemy. I could feel a dull ache on the back of my head... Hopefully it was nothing serious. What a way to start off a weekend either way... Ouch.

"Oy, get up!"

The next thing I knew, a splash of cold water hit my face, causing me to splutter and choke in my shock. That had the unfortunate effect of alerting my captors to my consciousness.

"Good, she's awake. Open the blindfold."

I blinked as the blindfold was removed from my eyes, allowing me to see again. The state of the room was much as I had expected - decrepit and abandoned. Two muscled men sat on crates scattered about the room, cradling guns. Another one was on the floor with his gun in pieces polishing it.

And another two not as burly ones stood in front of me, one holding an empty bucket dripping water, and the other wearing sunglasses just standing there looking smug and cool. Sunglasses. In a closed room! Seriously? I scowled at them, unable to talk because I was gagged...

"Oh, she's one of those defiant ones," Mr. Bucket remarked. "Shouldn't you be feeling scared? Nobody's going to come looking for you."

I carefully schooled my expression to still appear defiant, but internally I was starting to panic. Without my Neuro Linker I couldn't contact anyone to come and help... somehow. How was I going to get out of this?

"You're good, I'll give you that. But let's see how long that mask will last, shall we?" Mr. Sunglasses laughed.

I looked around frantically for some clues as to where I was... There was an open window here from which I could see... an aging clock tower preserved for historical purposes... a shopping mall to its right and a park on the other side...

... Crap, that wasn't enough for me to determine my location - I wasn't familiar with this area at all!

"Now listen closely and do what we say or we won't guarantee your safety..." Mr. Sunglasses continued as he dangled a blue circular object in front of my face... My Neuro Linker! "We're going to give you back your Neuro Linker, and you're going to call your parents. We'll hijack the link from there and tell them how to get you back..."

I hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. There wasn't anything else I could do at the moment...

"After that, we'll move to a different location so you can't get away with ratting out our location during the call or anytime else," said Mr. Bucket gleefully.

Oh crap.

I hung my head in defeat and allowed them to put my Neuro Linker back on after removing my gag. My vision went fuzzy for a short moment as my HUD came back into my field of vision. As it did, I caught sight of my Brain Burst application icon. Hopefully I'd be able to get out of here and continue using it...

...

Wait a second!

When my Neuro Linker connected to the Global Net, the first thing I did was whisper, "Burst Link."

The world around me flickered once before gaining a blue hue to it. Everyone around me froze as I stepped out of my real body in my virtual avatar gracefully. I knew I had as much time as I needed when accelerated, but that was all for naught if there was no one nearby I could call for help...

I hurriedly brought up my Brain Burst menu and checked for challengers nearby... There were quite a few in the area it seemed, but I didn't know any of them... Proved that this was a totally different part of the city. Crap...

I was just about to give up looking when a name came up that made my heart skip a beat.

_Shadow Phantom (Level 6)_

That guy was in the area! What the heck... But I didn't think I had any other choice at the moment if I wanted express help... A quick gulp later, I bashed the Duel button that had descended on chains from thin air with a closed fist hurriedly.

The world around me quickly changed in the blink of an eye, from a decrepit old building to an old room with crystalline growths coming out of the ground. Everywhere outside that I could see was the same - those crystalline growths. I knew they had raw energy coursing through them and would cause damage on contact, but that was about it...

Like my last battle before, my enemy location indicator went haywire right at the beginning, so I didn't know where he was. That was the problem... he'd find me first and when he did, I wouldn't have the time to talk to him before we started fighting. I knew this was a risky move to make... but I slammed my rifle into the ground barrel first and sat down on the ground. My point-defence guns shut down as I did.

And then I waited.

It took several minutes, but then a black cloaked figure appeared in front of me from thin air. I made no move to reach for my gun, and he stepped forward cautiously. Still I didn't even move a limb, though I did look up to face him.

"I take it you want to talk to me about something," a deep, obviously masked voice boomed from under the figure's hood.

"I do. I wouldn't be sitting here like this otherwise," I gestured at my discarded weapon. "You can even take it, but right now I need to talk to you urgently..."

Obviously still distrustful of me, Shadow Phantom took my gun and put it behind him. He also moved part of his cloak aside to show the blade of his scythe poking out behind him, and I gulped for a moment.

There was an awkward silence for several moments as we stared at each other, but I couldn't hold it for long in my panicked state and looked away.

"I'm... being kidnapped now. In normal time..."

I almost missed the sharp intake of breath that escaped Shadow Phantom's lips, but he didn't show anything on his face - or rather I couldn't see it at all since he was hooded. Not that expressions were visible on Duel Avatars' faces, come to think of it...

"Where?"

"I don't know... but you're the only person in the area I know - all the other Burst Linkers here are strangers to me. I don't live in this area and I don't know where is where..." I suddenly realized I was talking way too fast and quickly forced myself to take some deep breaths.

"So you decided to challenge me just to tell me that? You still have your Neuro Linker?"

"Look, they want me to make a call to my parents for the ransom money. I won't have the time to do much besides that in real time," I argued. "After that they'll take away my Neuro Linker and take me elsewhere... Please, you have got to help me!"

"My question was where."

"I could see an old clock tower from where I was... a shopping mall to its right and a park on its left. I'm in an old-looking building... And I can hear cars passing by on the ground level."

Shadow Phantom paused for a moment as he began looking through some menus on his screen I couldn't see.

"I got your position. It's close to where I am now."

"Please... help me out here..." I whimpered, having lost all composure at this point. "I want to go back home safely..."

"The police won't be in time, and they're not subtle enough. I'll go myself."

I blinked in surprise at his willingness to help out. Was this really Shadow Phantom? He wasn't acting like the cold, indifferent person I had made him out to be...

"No! They have two men with guns! There are probably a few more hanging around too! It's too dangerous!" I tried to dissuade him from going frantically.

"Do you want to be saved or not!" Shadow Phantom snapped.

I recoiled backwards as if stung by a bee. I did want to be saved... but I didn't want him to die because of me!

"You forget who we are. We are Burst Linkers... Bullets won't hit us."

With that, he vanished into thin air.

"I'm going whether you like it or not, Yukina," his voice rang out from all around me...

That had me doing an impression of a fish - he knew my name in real life... Who was he, really?

After a few minutes of accelerated time the battle ended in a draw. Shadow Phantom didn't appear anymore during that time, and I couldn't track him down to ask him how he knew my real name anyway because of the fluctuating location indicator. After another fruitless search I gave up and sighed in defeat.

"Burst Out," I muttered half-heartedly.

All too soon I was back in real time and that sticky situation with a gun pointed to my head. Maybe it'd be better to call my brother first...

"I'd like to make two calls... another to my brother..." Come to think of it, I needed to stall for time until Shadow Phantom arrived. Just as well... hopefully he was good enough.

"Whatever. Just so long as we get our money," Mr. Sunglasses waved a hand flippantly, still wearing that freaky smile.

I sighed and quickly brought up my menu, reaching for my list of contacts to call. I was so scared that I almost forgot to breathe as I shakily navigated to Ryusei's icon and hit the call button.

It was a short while before he picked up. _"Yuki? Something up?"_

"O-onii-chan..." I began, but my words after that caught in my throat and wouldn't come out...

_"Yuki, why do you sound like that?"_

"Well... Uh..." was all I could get out of my mouth before the door exploded, flinging shards of wood everywhere.

"What the heck?" Mr. Bucket shouted as he unholstered a pistol and turned to aim at the destroyed door.

Several gunshots rang out clear through the air, and I had to do my best not to let the scream escape my mouth... I didn't want to draw their attention back to me...

A black blur appeared out of the smoke from the destroyed door wreathed in dust and debris. Immediately the two muscleheads opened fire with their assault rifles, and I began fearing for my to-be saviour's life... He was going up against real guns! Even if he was a Burst Linker... real guns were too much!

I could already see the figure using Brain Burst to full effect as all the bullets kept missing him - he effortlessly dodged all of them. Before one of the gunmen could react, the figure had delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of his face, sending him flying into a wall. The other gunman blocked a kick with his burly arm and raised his gun to fire.

He never got to pull the trigger as suddenly he staggered backwards and fell to the ground clutching his crown jewels howling in pain. Another kick to the back of his head knocked him out cold as the figure returned to the first gunman and KO'ed him in the same manner.

"Who're you!" Mr. Sunglasses gaped. Not just everyone could take down two gunmen while unarmed after all!

"Just a passerby..." the figure wreathed in dust replied.

Wait. A. Darn. Second. That voice... I knew that voice! But why was he...

"- who's going to whoop your arse," continued Kyrius Igzelier, a blazing fire evident in his piercing gaze.

"Kyrius!" I called out. No way... Kyrius was actually Shadow Phantom! But... but... he had never told me about it!

"Tch, you're just a lousy brat!" Mr. Bucket charged right at him holding an aluminium baseball bat.

Kyrius whispered something before ducking under the wild bat swing and grabbing the man before spinning around causing Mr. Bucket to stumble forwards before being slammed hard into the ground face-first. An audible crack made me wince - that must've broken his nose...

"Son of a bitch!" Mr. Sunglasses roared as he began wildly firing his pistol.

Again Kyrius whispered, "Physical Burst," before continuing to dodge the bullets as if they were flying at a snail's pace. He only dodged the bare minimum needed, allowing the bullets to whizz past him missing by mere millimetres. Once he got within striking range, he lashed out with a foot, catching his opponent in the knee.

"OW!" Mr. Sunglasses yelped as his kneecap shattered from the force of the kick. He went down clutching his knee even as Kyrius delivered a swift kick to the back of his head, knocking him out.

_"...Yuki, I'm calling the police!"_ suddenly I realized that the call was still active... and my brother had heard the entire gunfight.

"Onii-chan..." I started, but the call cut off before I could tell him I was fine now.

"Yuki, are you alright?" Kyrius quickly made his way over to where I was tied up. A frustrated growl escaped his lips after a short look at the bonds.

"I'm... fine now..." I wasn't quite sure what to say. "You're... Shadow... Phantom...?"

Kyrius flinched slightly as I said that, but quickly recomposed himself as he wrapped his hands in plastic bags before stealing a knife from one of the unconscious buffoons and working on the bonds using it. His silence was answer enough.

"You never told me..."

"Yuki, would you have taken it any better either way? I'm a cold-blooded killer in the Accelerated World. I'm THE Shadow Phantom. How would you have reacted?"

"But..."

"I suspected you were Ruby Sniper after hearing your voice and seeing your reaction after I sent that message. But even if I knew, our identities are supposed to be secrets. I wouldn't have told you anyway, and I assume you wouldn't have told me your identity either."

"..."

"I hope you understand," Kyrius sighed as he started working on the last bond around my waist.

"But... why? Why save me?"

"I don't know!" Kyrius growled. "I just had this nagging feeling inside to go save you and I panicked! Believe me, if any other person had asked, I wouldn't have lost my head like that! I don't know what's wrong with me when it comes to you!"

The words in my mouth froze at his sudden outburst as I turned to look at him, slack-jawed. Somehow I made him do this...?

"Kyrius, I..." I started, only to be interrupted again.

"It's not your fault, Yuki. It's something up with me," he sighed, his annoyed demeanour from earlier gone.

"... You placed yourself in danger for my sake..."

"Exactly. For your sake. It's all about you - I react differently towards you than other girls. When I'm near you, I feel warm. When I hold you, I feel like my heart's going to explode from beating too fast. When Ruby Sniper popped up and told me she was being kidnapped... I practically lost it."

"Kyrius... I..." I couldn't believe the direction this conversation was going in...

"Don't say a word, Yuki. I chose this... I... I want to protect you."

At that point, the roiling emotions that had been building up inside me simply exploded as the dam holding them in broke. I started sobbing as Kyrius cut through the last of the bonds, and practically leapt at him to bury my sobs in his chest. Caught off-guard, he toppled to the ground with me on top of him...

Kyrius... He did all that just for me...

"Yuki..." I felt his hands wrap around me protectively.

"Kyrius... thanks for co-coming to my help..." I sobbed as I used his sweat-soaked shirt as a handkerchief.

Before Kyrius had the chance to reply, I felt him push me away just as a gunshot rang out audibly in the room. I opened my tearing eyes to see Mr. Bucket holding a smoking pistol in his hand, blood leaking from his broken nose. He wore a triumphant smile on his face... that meant... I quickly turned back towards Kyrius.

He was lying on the ground clutching his left shoulder... with blood dripping from it and pooling on the ground...

"KYRIUS!" I cried out in horror.

At that precise moment, I heard a loud sound of boots on the ground... lots of them. People clad in blue uniforms rushed into the room and before Mr. Bucket could fire again, he was pinned back onto the ground and his gun was knocked out of his hand. The other men were also pinned even though they were unconscious...

"Police! Don't move!" one of them shouted. "Put your hands in the air!"

Not that there was anyone conscious enough to put their hands in the air... but I couldn't care less about the police right now!

"Kyrius! Stay with me!" I cried. "Police! He needs medical attention!"

"Matsumoto, get the ambulance! Tsukihara-san?"

"Y-yes?" I sniffed as the officer knelt down beside me.

"Your brother called us saying you were kidnapped. You're safe now..."

I just continued to cry my eyes out as I hugged Kyrius tight. He gripped my hand and gave a weak squeeze as he forced a smile onto his face. At least... at least he wasn't lost yet...

"Tsukihara-san, your brother's waiting at the precinct," the officer said as he gently laid a hand on my shoulder. "Your friend will be okay."

"O-okay..." I sniffed.

"Ju-just go, Yuki. This... this is nothing," Kyrius winced in pain. That sure as hell did not look like nothing! The bullet had lodged in the wound, and I could almost see his scapula...

Next thing I knew, I was throwing up on the floor as the full implications of the wound hit me.

"Tsukihara-san, we'll bring you to the precinct. You can see him again after he gets some medical treatment."

I could only nod as the nauseating smell of my own bile made me throw up again. The officer quickly pulled me away gently and left the building.

* * *

"Yuki!" My brother stood up as I entered the room he was in and rushed towards me to engulf me in his arms.

I stood there just crying as Ryusei hugged me tightly... not even bothering that he was doing it hard enough to hear my bones cracking. All I could do was cry and reciprocate the hug...

"Kyrius... He..." I sobbed.

Ryusei turned an enquiring eye towards the officer that had brought me back. He cleared his throat and began explaining.

"We found another boy with her. He appeared to have broken in himself and taken down most of the kidnappers before being surprised from behind with a gunshot."

"Kyrius? I'm going to need to have a talk with him."

"Onii-chan..." I cried. "I was so scared..."

"You're safe now..." he gently rubbed my forehead. "How did that boy take down four armed kidnappers by himself? And why?"

"He passed out before we could ask, but judging from the injuries the kidnappers took, he used his bare hands and feet while somehow dodging fire from two assault rifles. Lots of bullet holes around."

One of Ryusei's eyebrows shot to his hairline. I sniffed as he gave me a 'We'll talk later,' look. All I could do was incline my head slightly, knowing there was no way I could get out of this now.

The officer left us for our teary reunion, and I just continued to cry into my brother's shirt while he stayed silent. It didn't take much longer for me to calm myself down in his warm, loving embrace... Once I was done crying my eyes out, I settled for sniffs as I buried my face in his shirt.

"Are you hungry?" Ryusei asked patiently and softly.

I nodded imperceptibly - I hadn't eaten anything since morning... and it was already evening now... He didn't seem to catch the gesture, but the loud rumbling sound from my empty stomach alerted him regardless and managed to break the tension as it made him laugh.

"Onii-chan!" I growled in embarrassment.

"Sorry, sorry... I'll take you out tonight. God knows you'll need some heavier stuff than normal tonight. My treat, you deserve it after what you've been through."

"Then... Pizza Hut," I blushed, most of my woes forgotten already.

"Very well," he rubbed my forehead gently just like he always used to do when I was young. "Got time for a bath back home? You're a right mess now."

I looked down at myself. Ryusei was right - the men hadn't been quite gentle enough when moving me, it seemed. My dress was torn and tattered, and I had cuts and bruises in quite a few places. A quick sniff alerted me to the smoky smell permeating the air around me - darn smokers. I cursed under my breath at my ruined dress - it had been one of my favourite ones too...

...

"Onii-chan, don't look!" I lashed out with a hand, catching my brother off-guard and punching him in the face entirely by accident while I pulled my dress up to cover my unintended exposure...

"I wasn't... looking..." Ryusei gasped as he fell backwards to the ground.

Luckily my underwear covered it... but either way I wasn't happy about the wardrobe semi-failure... "Stupid kidnappers," I huffed as I settled my ruined dress as well as I could.

Another officer chose that moment to step in with a first aid kit. She gave the twitching man on the floor a passing glance before approaching me and opening the kit.

After 10 minutes of sharp pains and wincing, my brother and I were on our way back home in a squad car since I could hardly show myself in public to ride the commuter train like this. I couldn't help thinking of Kyrius as I directed my stare out the window of the car...

Why did my heart ache when I thought of him? Him getting injured just for my sake...

Regardless I'd need to visit him tomorrow. The police had been very helpful and applied for several days off from school for both Kyrius and I to recover. I knew I was still quite shaken by the event, and shuddered as I thought of what could have happened to me if he hadn't come to save me...

I forced myself to put the thought aside as the car stopped next to our apartment. That wouldn't happen anymore, so I didn't need to work myself up over it anymore... I needed the mental rest more at the moment.

"Yuki, we're here," my brother grasped my hand gently and led me out of the car.

I just followed in silence, trying to clear my mind of the events of the day. My expression was mostly blank even as we rode the lift up. I didn't understand it... Why did Kyrius have to do that for me and put himself in danger? Granted, he did manage to save me, but regardless of whatever he said, I still felt guilty about him landing in the hospital...

My sigh sounded abnormally loud in the relative silence of the lift...

"I know you're worried about him, Yuki," my brother smiled as he laid his hand on my back softly. "We'll go visit him tomorrow."

I nodded absent-mindedly and leaned into my brother's side for support. Now that my adrenaline had mostly worn off, I was feeling quite... tired...

"Yuki?"

* * *

... When had I fallen asleep? The last thing I remembered was being with my brother in the lift... I became vaguely aware of the soft, cushy thing I was lying on - my bed. Ryusei must've carried me to my bed... I chuckled lightly as I sat up. At least he had the decency not to undress me. I was still in the torn dress from yesterday...

It did miff me that I had to sleep in my bed in dirty clothes though... Not to mention I still smelled like I had passed through some nightclub - I positively reeked of cigarette smoke.

An annoyed sigh later, I rummaged in my wardrobe for a clean set of clothes, pausing only to glance at the clock floating in a corner of my HUD. Yikes, I was late for school already! I hurriedly grabbed a clean uniform and scrambled into the bathroom, tossing all my clothes aside.

Barely 10 minutes later, I was trying to wrestle my uniform on while combing my luxurious silver hair at the same time. It was in that state that my brother walked in on me on, yawning sleepily...

...

"Why are you putting on your uniform? You got a few days off from school to rest..." he yawned.

I went bright red in embarrassment - I had totally forgotten about that! Gah, force of habit... I retreated back to my bedroom to pick out a different set of clothes, still half-dressed with only my shirt and underwear on.

"Hmm, she's growing up into a fine woman..." I heard Ryusei murmur not-so-quietly.

My blush expanded down to my neck as I grabbed a bottle of water and flung my bedroom door open with a loud crash to throw it at my perverted brother.

"ONII-CHAN!"

I slammed the door shut on a spasming Ryusei on the ground with a huge lump on the back of his head.

Five minutes afterwards, I had changed into a blue shirt with black patterns running across it, paired with a black pleated miniskirt. The grey stockings covering my legs up to mid-thigh didn't leave much for imagination. I also put on a silver star hairclip and a brooch. Mostly satisfied with my attire, I exited my bedroom.

Ryusei had already recovered by the time I was done, dressed in a black leather jacket and long black pants. He smiled at me as if nothing had just happened, and I returned it, completely unrepentant.

"Couldn't you have thrown a pillow? That hurt," he complained.

"Your fault for being perverted," I returned.

"Ouch," he winced.

We left the apartment together and took a taxi to the local hospital in silence. Even when Ryusei tried to make small talk, I was too busy wrestling my conflicted emotions to respond. What if... what if Kyrius had lost the use of his arm because he took that hit? What if he... what if he...

"Yuki, you're shaking."

I gripped my shaking arm tight, mentally berating myself for showing my panic to my brother. He laid a gentle hand on my shoulder and smiled at me knowingly. I really couldn't help but lean towards him for support - just being near him made me feel safe and protected. But lately I had begun to get that feeling around Kyrius too...

...

"Don't be nervous about meeting him. I'll be with you after all," Ryusei gently patted me on my back as if sensing my discomfort.

I flashed him a weak smile as the familiar tall white hospital building came into view. It had been years since I last came here, but it hadn't changed one bit. We exited the taxi after my brother paid the fare, and not five minutes later we were stepping into the hospital lobby. I took in the sterile smell and the sight of hospital staff and patients milling around doing their business.

Still the same as ever...

Ryusei strolled up to the counter nonchalantly as the nurse manning it turned to face her. "We're here to visit a Kyrius..." he turned to me pleadingly.

"Igzelier," I supplied. "Kyrius Igzelier."

"Oh, you're the girl he saved, right? Um... Tsukihara Yukina. Your silver hair is quite distinctive," the nurse smiled sympathetically as she continued, "Mr. Igzelier is on floor 5, ward 507. Just follow the directions I'm sending you now."

Immediately a series of arrows appeared on my HUD directing me towards the elevator off the lobby. I thanked the nurse and led my brother off towards it.

Within minutes I was standing in front of the correct ward and fidgeting nervously. I reached a hand towards the door handle, but hesitated as I grasped it. Ryusei smiled supportively and patted me softly on my back as he motioned for me to open the door. I took a deep gulp of air and pushed the door open.

"Excuse me for-"

"Yuki-chan!" I was interrupted by a voice I never thought I'd hear again.

It was a testament to my enhanced reflexes from the Accelerated World that I managed to dodge the body that came flying towards me. That very familiar body missed me by a hair's breadth as it wrapped its arms around my brother.

"Yuki-chan, I've missed you so much! How could you just leave me lying in the street like that, my lovely snow flower?"

Ryusei turned an enquiring stare at me as I stifled my laughter at the guy having hugged the wrong target without even realizing it.

"So, Yuki-chan, let me welcome you with my special kiss full of my love for you..." Uehara Sanno smooched his lips as he raised his head towards Ryusei's.

Only to be met by a rough hand shoved in his face.

"Oh my, your lips are so rough... eh?" Sanno finally opened his eyes and found himself staring at a highly amused and irritated Ryuusei.

"While I do appreciate your _love_ for my _snow flower_ of a younger sister... you should probably kiss her instead of her older brother. That being said, I believe we should have a little... chat, should we?" Ryusei flashed a creepy smile that had Sanno going completely pale and flinching as he was led away with an arm around his shoulders.

"Have a _nice long_ chat, onii-chan!" I called out as he passed by me, still barely holding in my laughter.

I reentered the ward a little more cautiously this time to see Kyrius lying there on a hospital bed laughing at Sanno's predicament. His shoulder was bandaged up, and several parts of his body had marks left over from treatment - comparatively minor scratches, I assumed.

"Your brother certainly knows how to put on a show," he remarked.

"He does," I agreed as I took the empty seat beside his bed.

There was an awkward silence for several moments as I averted my eyes from his shyly. I didn't dare to make eye contact after what he had done for me...

"So... uh..." I stammered, only to be interrupted by a finger hovering in front of my lips.

"No need to apologize, Yuki. No one in his right mind would ignore a damsel in distress," he cut me off before I could continue as if he read my mind.

"But... I got you hurt! You could've died there, Kyrius!" I began tearing up despite my best attempts at keeping my tears contained. This was just... just too personal... "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew you died trying to save me! "

"But I didn't. Besides, do you think I'd be able to live with myself abandoning you when it could've been my only chance to save you?" he countered and grimaced in pain as he shifted slightly on his bed.

"Does... does it hurt?" I asked hesitantly.

"Of course it does," he growled out through the pain. "Hurt even more yesterday though. Now it's mostly okay."

"I'm really s-"

"Don't, Yuki. I'm not angry at you for getting me injured. I was just careless," he interrupted me again. "Now stop apologizing and I'll give you a special discount the next time you stop by that restaurant I work at, Cuisine de la France."

Totally caught off guard by the bribe, I found my expression alternating between shock and amusement. Either way I couldn't quite hide the trail of drool currently running down my chin, and by the time I had wiped it off, Kyrius was already smirking at his successful bribe.

"No fair," I pouted.

"Yes fair. You shut up already, right?" he grinned.

"Hmmmph," I snorted derisively.

He chuckled as he leaned towards me. "This is final, Yuki. I put myself in that situation of my own free will. It was out of your control - you didn't know I was Shadow Phantom at the time. Besides, it's all in the past now," he said with a tone of finality.

With that tone, I really couldn't do much but nod in acquiescence.

"Good girl," he teased, only to grimace again as he shifted his shoulder. "Ow."

I settled down beside him as calmly as I could. Internally I was still trying to fight my guilt... But when I thought of that discount on the French food, I couldn't help letting that goofy smile creep onto my face...

"You're drooling again."

I blushed bright red as I wiped the drool off again embarrassedly. Kyrius had that smirk on his face again.

Darn, now he had blackmail material on one of my weaknesses...

"Anyway, nice job taking off my leg in our first battle. I didn't see that landmine coming," he remarked.

"We got each other good," I nodded, and paused as a question that had been lingering in the back of my mind came back forward. "What is Erohara-san doing here?"

"Erohara? I suppose you mean Sanno. He's... a friend of mine."

... Kyrius, the cool and calm prince hanging out with a disgusting pervert like that...? I couldn't imagine that happening...

"I get that look a lot when I say it," he smiled. "But Sanno's really a good guy inside when he's not chasing skirts."

"I find that hard to imagine," I blanched and made a gagging motion.

"I know, right? He's a Burst Linker too, by the way."

That statement had me sitting up straight in my seat and staring at Kyrius wide-eyed. That... that pervert was actually a Burst Linker! No way...

"Don't tell me he has some ability related to seducing female Burst Linkers," I adopted a pose with my hands on my hips as I eyed him questioningly.

"He doesn't. I'll leave it for when you challenge him to a fight to find out. He doesn't know about your rapid-switching ability after all."

"How did you figure out my ability that fast?" I gaped.

"It's not too hard. None of the gunner types with multiple weapons I've gone up against can switch that fast," he shrugged. "I was actually wondering when you'd overheat that gatling gun and switch it for something else... slowly."

I blushed - he really wasn't called the Reaper for nothing. The overheating part was one I was loathe to admit though. That was something I tried to keep secret but clearly he had too much experience with firearms. My gatling guns had a tendency to overheat if fired continuously for too long. The same held true for most of my gun's other modes too.

"When did you become a Burst Linker?" I asked.

"Several years back. I've lost track already after spending so much time in the Accelerated World," he looked thoughtful for a moment before he continued, "I think it was about... a year after I moved to Japan. My mentor... got Brain Burst uninstalled after losing too many battles. He was quite rash anyway..."

"I can understand the feeling. My mentor lost Brain Burst too. She doesn't remember me anymore... It was about the only thing we shared in common," I nodded sympathetically with a hint of sadness in my voice.

"I see..." Kyrius mused. "I lost contact with my mentor several weeks after obtaining Brain Burst and never saw him after he got it uninstalled. So people lose their memories of the Accelerated World after losing it?"

"That seems to be the case."

"No wonder I never saw my mentor again either," he sighed.

"I guess... we're pretty similar in that respect," I chuckled light-heartedly.

"Yup. So... How've you been after the kidnapping?"

"Well... I..."

"You don't have to say it if you don't want to," Kyrius quickly said once he detected my discomfort.

"No... I'm fine," I took a deep breath before continuing, "It's just that I've been feeling so paranoid about safety lately. I get so scared just thinking I might get kidnapped again. It's a good thing I have onii-chan with me..."

"You sure seem quite attached to your big brother," the long-haired foreigner remarked.

That remark had me blushing as I returned, "He's always been particularly fond of me. I don't know where I'd be without him... He alerted the police to our position yesterday."

"I surmised as much," Kyrius nodded slowly.

Ryusei chose that precise moment to return, followed by an extremely pale Sanno. The former strode into the ward confidently and smugly while the other half-staggered in looking like he'd seen a ghost. A particularly scary one.

"So how's my little sister's saviour doing?" my brother extended a hand towards Kyrius. "Tsukihara Ryusei, I'm Yuki's older brother."

"I'm Kyrius Igzelier. Pleased to meet you," Kyrius shook his hand warmly.

"Which one is your surname? I can never quite get used to Western names..."

"Igzelier is. Even after living in Japan for so long I can never understand Japanese names either," Kyrius laughed.

"Heh. I really have to thank you for saving my sister from those kidnappers. She's really can be a klutz sometimes," Ryusei said, earning him a good poke in the ribs from me. "I'm immune to that!"

I promptly stepped on his foot... hard. "Onii-chan!"

"You know, Yuki, aren't you here to visit a patient rather than admit a new one?" Kyrius commented with an amused smile on his face.

I blushed as I quickly took my foot off Ryusei, who had his mouth open in a silent howl of pain.

"What the man said!"

I scowled playfully at my brother, but lost it after a short while and settled for sticking my tongue out at him.

"So anyway, before I was rudely interrupted..." he shot me an accusing look while I whistled innocently as he continued, "Thanks for saving my sister. The Tsukihara family is indebted to you."

"It's what anyone in my situation would've done, Mr. Tsukihara," Kyrius replied politely. "Besides... Yuki's my classmate. I could never knowingly abandon a classmate in trouble as the class representative."

"Oh please, when younger people call me that, it makes me look over my shoulder for my oto-san. Ryusei's enough, or just Ryu. You've earned the right to use it," my brother beamed happily.

"Thanks, Ryu," Kyrius grinned.

"I should really be the one thanking you though... How's your injury coming along?"

"It still hurts, but the doctor said I'll be out by tomorrow. Gotta thank medical nanobots."

"Indeed. The Tsukihara family will pay for your hospital bill - it's the least we can do to repay you."

"There's no way I can refuse that, right?" Kyrius frowned.

"Nope. Just live with it," Ryusei nodded in affirmation. "Money is nothing compared to the life of an innocent child which you happened to save."

"I suppose..." my class representative sighed, and perked up as he noticed Sanno still looking rather terrified. "Sanno, you've been awfully quiet this whole time."

"Don't mind me... Just big brothers getting to me..." the pervert suddenly noticed my brother giving him the death glare and shirked back in fear, "Eep."

"I'm getting to you? That's a good thing to know," Ryusei grinned ominously.

"Anyway, you two want to try duelling? Sanno's a level 4 Burst Linker, he should be enough of a challenge for you, Yuki," Kyrius smiled.

Sanno seemed to regain his spirits at the prospect of a challenge as he almost jumped right off his seat. "That sounds like fun, Yuki-chan!"

I recoiled backwards in disgust as he started to approach me again, only for Ryusei to step in front of me protectively. The pervert paled again and stopped his advance.

"Good boy," Ryusei smirked as he patted the guy on the head none too lightly. "Now, I believe you haven't really earned the right to use my little sister's nickname yet...?"

"Sorry, I overreacted," Sanno slumped in defeat. "Yuki... Yukina-san, will you forgive me?"

"Only if you concede this duel to me," I grinned. "Just kidding, I wouldn't do anything of the sort. Fixed duels are simply no fun."

Sanno stared at me expectantly, turning a terrified eye to look at my brother every now and then. Kyrius was watching the scene unfold with a cocked eyebrow.

"I do forgive you, Erohara-san..." I waited for his face to light up before delivering the coup de grace, "Just remember my brother when you're around me."

The effect was instantaneous - Sanno's face took on an aghast look that soon had Ryusei and I howling with mirth. Even Kyrius was completely ditching his impassive mask and openly snickering at his friend's plight.

"Can we stop the... big brother thing now? I promise to be good!" the pervert caved in.

"As if anything could possibly cure your perversion..." I snorted derisively.

"I'd call it more... having a sense of appreciation for Mother Nature's best works of art," Sanno adopted the puppy dog look as he gazed at me.

I wrapped my arms around my chest and returned fire with a glare. "That's basically another explanation for perversion!"

Before anyone could say another word, the door to the ward was suddenly flung open and standing there was the last person I expected... or wanted to see. I would recognize that obnoxious twintailed blonde anywhere...

"You... you! I can't believe the nerve of you, Tsukihara Yukina!" Hoseki Takanashi stormed into the ward angrily.

"Hoseki-san?" I blinked in surprise.

"You have the nerve to come visit Kyrius-sama after he got put into the hospital saving your pathetic life! You should be ashamed of yourself!" the obnoxious blonde demanded, punctuating her words with several rough jabs of her finger at my chest.

"Hey!" Kyrius started to get up, but winced as he accidentally put pressure on the arm attached to his injured shoulder.

"Maybe I should teach you a lesson, stupid girl! Or should I say..." she smiled creepily as she voiced her next two words, "Ruby Sniper?"

Oh... crap.

"Burst Link!"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Just gotta say this, but don't expect a set release date for my chapters. I write when I have the feel for it and when I have the time, which is frankly not all that much since I'm pretty busy with school. I've also decided to forego chapter buffering as even I can't wait to release the chapters myself. .**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"Who would've thought that the silver-haired girl, Tsukihara Yukina was really the true identity of the Burst Linker who drew with the famous Shadow Phantom despite being of a lower level?"

I bent my knees, planted a foot solidly in the ground behind me and levelled my gun at the familiar golden Duel Avatar before me. Gold Virgo cracked her whip ominously as she stood in front of me, glaring at me. I quickly glanced around, taking in my surroundings.

This was... the Factory map. Lots of gears, pistons and other mechanical stuff scattered around the map. Close quarters combat was a must here when indoors due to the small rooms and narrow corridors. Dang, not really my forte... but I switched my gun to gatling mode anyway. At least I could do some damage with rapid fire in a narrow corridor.

"Yuki."

I started and turned to face the source of the voice. Standing beside me, of all people, was the guy with a black cloak and a mask that had been watching me in my first battle with Gold Virgo... Wait a second, that voice!

"Kyrius!" I gasped in surprise.

"Don't let me distract you now. You gotta focus on beating her. Remember what you learnt of her battle style in your first fight against her," he nodded at me as he faded into the shadows.

"Kyrius-sama, why are you still encouraging her even after she almost had you killed!" Gold Virgo exploded. "I'll defeat this stupid girl and show you who the real lady here is!"

I quickly seeded some land mines as I backed out the doorway leading into the room. I found myself in a long corridor with little to no cover at all. Quickly forming a plan, I sprinted to the end of the hallway while seeding landmines. Once I got to the end, I pointed my gun directly down it and got ready to squeeze the trigger.

Sure enough, a series of explosions indicated that the mines had tripped. Upon glancing at the health bars on top of the screen, however, it was obvious she hadn't taken any damage at all. I soon noticed why - as she stepped out into the corridor, she was flailing her whips in front of her, using them to set off the mines instead.

"A mine flail..." I inwardly cursed at myself for not thinking of that particular way to disable my mines.

"Ohohoho! As if that's going to work on me a second time!" Gold Virgo laughed madly.

That was when I jammed my finger down hard on the trigger of my gun. The resulting hailstorm of bullets tore through the smoke created by the detonations of the mines, while I seeded even more mines and set one to explode in five seconds. That done, I dashed around the corner and planted a sensor pod on the wall.

More dust was thrown up by the chained detonation of the mines, but I just kept running, hoping to find some room where I could bring my long-range firepower to bear. As I activated my location indicator jamming ability, I spotted a glass window leading outside and jumped through it without a moment's hesitation.

Wait, bad idea. This was the sixth floor!

Before I hit the ground, I spun around in mid-air and fired my grappling hooks at the rooftop. They connected solidly, catching me just before I landed. A quick tug disengaged the hooks as I broke into a run heading away from the building I had been in. I shuddered at the thought of being on the receiving end of Gold Virgo's Grand Wheel attack... It had been scary enough the first time!

A grappling hook-assisted jump landed me on the rooftop of another building a good distance away from the first one. I took a moment's rest to calm myself down and cool my head first. Only now my senses were assaulted by the smell of dirty smoke permeating the air, as well as the cacophony of noises from the machinery all over the place.

Smokestacks pumped thick black smoke out into the air as large gears spun, turning other gears and parts of machinery. Pistons pumped, drainage pipes released waste into fuming pools of vile liquids and power lines running across the field sparked every now and then.

It really was a testament to the powers of Brain Burst, being able to generate such vivid environments... but this wasn't the time to be distracted by that.

"GRAND WHEEL!"

Oh crap!

Gold Virgo's whips lashed out of the building, and I had a feeling of deja vu as the building collapsed, its supports destroyed. She appeared to have upgraded it though - the range wasn't as short as I had expected, and several other buildings a good distance away also collapsed...

Including the one I was on.

Caught completely off guard, I lost my footing as the building crumbled to pieces beneath me. The resulting tumble sent me crashing headfirst into the debris of the building and a large cloud of start, and I felt myself lose a few hit points from the impact...

"Going somewhere?"

I found myself being yanked upwards roughly by the scruff of my neck. Standing in front of me was a very annoyed Gold Virgo with both whips in hand.

"I am not going to fall for the same trick twice, Tsukihara-baka!" she mocked triumphantly as she began to repeatedly slam me into the ground.

Before she could do too much damage, I quickly switched my gun to howitzer mode and braced myself for the inevitable.

The explosion of the shell fired at the ground sent the both of us flying a good distance away. I was prepared for it, so I managed to land on my feet instead of the inelegant landing on her rump that Gold Virgo performed. It didn't take her long to scramble to her feet though. She immediately cracked her whips again in an attempt to intimidate me, but it didn't quite faze me.

"How did you find out my real identity?" I kept my gun trained on her threateningly.

"Did you think you were the only ones on that battlefield yesterday?" she folded her arms smugly.

I mentally smacked myself for being careless about that battle yesterday... She must've been watching then!

"Yes, I heard that exchange!" she smirked. "It wasn't too hard to figure it out after the news of the kidnapping came out this morning."

I sighed and smacked myself in the head for my stupidity. But honestly, I was far too panicked to think straight back then... Ugh...

"Tsukibaka, you almost had Kyrius-sama killed!" Gold Virgo jabbed her finger at me accusingly. "And yet you still dare to approach him!"

"I came here today to apologize to him!" I shouted back, my patience rapidly running out. "You can ask him yourself!"

"Kyrius-sama won't be accepting that apology! He needs time to heal, and he will spend that time with a real lady who knows how to take care of him!"

Gold Virgo ended her verbal salvo after that and got started on the physical one. She lashed out with one whip, and then the other in rapid succession from the other direction, forcing me to take another few steps backwards to dodge. Another horizontal lash had me ducking and firing off a shot from the hip at her.

Naturally it missed and she countered by grabbing onto a building behind me with her whips and pulling herself towards me to land a kick on my chest. The impact knocked the air out of me even as she began to step on me and grind her boots.

"Ohohoho! You're so weak, idiot girl!" she mocked.

"I'm not gonna let this go on!" I ground my teeth.

Quickly taking aim at a nearby piece of fallen debris and a fallen smokestack in the other direction, I fired both grappling hooks and pulled sharply. The piece of debris slammed into Gold Virgo just as I vacated the ground under her. I quickly dove aside and disengaged the grappling hooks before I could be crushed.

I quickly jumped onto the pile of debris Gold Virgo was slammed into before dispersing a large quantity of mines. A high jump into the air later, I aimed my gun in howitzer mode directly downwards and pulled the trigger. The large shell flew true, striking the middle of the mine cluster and detonating it.

"Gotcha!" I pumped my fist as I watched Gold Virgo's health gauge deplete to about a quarter... and her special gauge deplete fully.

Quickly I sprang away as the crushed debris exploded outwards in a cloud of dust. Funnily enough, I could've sworn I saw three figures inside rather than just one... Where did the other two come from? Were they part of that special move she had just used?

As the dust settled, I could clearly see Gold Virgo standing there... along with two new golden-coloured human-sized doll-like... things. They had featureless masks covering their faces and very thin limbs that tapered out into slightly bigger hands and legs.

"That's... somehow gross," I made a face before remembering that facial expressions were indistinguishable underneath my visor.

"I've just about had enough of you!" Gold Virgo huffed. I noted that the dolls beside her mimicked her actions perfectly... "Marionettes, go get her!"

The doll things beside her immediately burst into action, cartwheeling towards me in perfectly synchronised motion. I barely had time to breathe before the first one swept me off my feet while the second one delivered a series of hard punches to my back, sending me flying towards their mistress.

"Point-defence guns, target Gold Virgo's shoulders!" I ordered.

Immediately the guns on my shoulders swivelled around to face the surprised Duel Avatar. Before she could raise her whips to defend herself, the guns unloaded dozens of low-calibre rounds into her shoulders, weakening her just enough for me to use the force from the Marionettes' attacks to kick her in the gut unhindered. This time she managed to keep her footing with her Marionettes supporting her from behind to prevent her from crashing into the wall.

Gold Virgo sprang back into action a little faster than I would've liked, but I readied myself nonetheless, holding my gun by a grip on the barrel in a close combat position. This time she attacked together with the Marionettes in a perfectly synchronised dance of legs, fists and whips...

I swung my gun around, but it didn't do any damage as my opponents merely backflipped out of the way before continuing their choreographed assault. With a low growl, I dropped low down to the ground as three pointed feet flew through the air my head had occupied mere milliseconds ago. Scattering mines at this proximity would be quite dangerous to me, and I was loathe to use the howitzer at point-blank range again.

That didn't leave me with many options...

"Point-defence guns, target Marionettes," I ducked under three simultaneous punches as my shoulder guns spun to life again to pelt the Marionettes with bullets. It messed them up enough for me to slip in an elbow to the gut as the Gold Virgo drew closer for a high kick.

"Oof," she stumbled backwards, but those annoying Marionettes were back in front of her before I could press the attack.

I swore as Gold Virgo recovered with a double vertical whip lash that the Marionettes mimicked with energy whips extending from their wrists. A quick dive to the side later the whips struck the concrete ground, actually managing to crack it.

"Stop moving around so much!" she growled as she brought her hands together, pointing her palms forward at me. "Dance Form: Andante!"

The Marionettes began to clap to a very fast tune as they stepped backwards. Before my eyes, the air around Gold Virgo seemed to shift and blur, causing her to leave behind golden afterimages of herself as she moved... towards me. Barely half a second later I felt her foot slam into my side. Another half a second later another foot impacted with my back...

I was thrown forward, only to take another few punches to my chest. Ugh, she was moving so fast and attacking so fiercely... Why? She had been moving at normal speed just a few moments ago! My health gauge had already depleted to about a third, and things still looking set for me to keep taking more damage...

What I needed to do now was counterattack! She was down to a quarter - not much longer now! But to do it I'd need to slow down her attacks... I had to slow her down or trip her somehow to give myself some breathing room. A stray thought crossed my mind, and I aimed my gun downwards while shifting to gatling mode.

"Where are you aiming?" Gold Virgo cackled as I sprayed wildly into the ground around me, chipping out small chunks to create a very uneven surface.

When she tried to attack after that, she ended up losing her footing on the suddenly rougher ground and falling over. Immediately I fired off a spray of bullets at her - taken completely off guard, she took it full-on and was knocked backwards only to be again rescued by her Marionettes, which had stopped clapping.

"A dance that increases attacking speed? Interesting," I noted as my opponent got back on her feet.

Before she was fully back up, I held the trigger back down. Even as the bullets sped towards her, she let out a cry, "Dance Form: Mirage!"

Her Marionettes quickly jerked into a dance apparently combining elements of ballet and Tai Chi while Gold Virgo herself began to move even faster than I previously thought possible... She practically became a moving blur, weaving _in between_ my bullets like they were moving in slow motion! Regardless I kept my gun trigger depressed until the gun overheated and began beeping to indicate so.

Gold Virgo's health gauge hadn't depleted one bit.

"What in the world..." I breathed in awe. I fired off that many bullets and yet none of them landed a single hit! That was impossible!

"Is that your best?" she taunted.

"Why are you so intent on getting me away from Kyrius?" I asked, trying to buy time for my gatling gun to cool down. That was my best bet at taking down a fast-moving, quick-dodging opponent...

"Haven't I said it before? You're not worthy to even breathe the same air as Kyrius-sama!"

"Why do you think of me that way then?" I challenged as I dug my feet in.

"You're just an airhead! Kyrius-sama belongs to all the girls of the Kyrius-sama fan club! There's no way we would let an outsider take his arm!"

I resisted the temptation to smack my forehead in exasperation. There was simply no getting through that thick head of hers right now - she was blinded by her anger and resentment. If I was going to reason with her, I needed to finish this battle with a win and return to real time...

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but I came for a reason and I'm not about to leave without doing a thing!" I returned, switching my gun to howitzer mode on a whim after noticing the large pillar behind her.

I quickly squeezed off a high explosive round at Gold Virgo, who easily dodged it again.

"Where are you aiming?" she laughed, not even noticing as the round struck the pillar, blowing a large hole in it and critically destabilising it. It began to fall...

"Not at you," I smiled as I turned tail and began to run. She'd probably dodge my bullets again if I tried to gun her down with the gatling mode. So... why not restrict her movements with debris and then blast her with a wide-area attack? I chuckled to myself and activated my location indicator jammer as a loud shriek from behind me was drowned out by the sound of collapsing rubble.

I used my grappling hooks to put a good amount of distance between us as I scanned for a good area to fire from with direct line of sight of the rubble. It didn't take long - soon I had landed on the roof of a large warehouse and spun around to point my gun directly at Gold Virgo's soon-to-be resting place.

The gun rapidly folded outwards, transforming into a huge mount on which a whopping 8 large gatling guns rested. My backpack also opened up to allow several long racks to extend to my sides while large boxes materialised on them. The sides facing Gold Virgo opened up, revealing rows upon rows of large missiles.

But that wasn't the end yet - two more long racks extended out to the sides of my gun, also opening up to show rocket launchers. Even after that, two sets of twin howitzers with long barrels swung around onto my shoulders. I smiled as I gripped the triggers of my gatling guns.

"Time to deliver the coup de grace! FULL SALVO!" I roared as I squeezed the trigger hard.

The sky erupted in fire and lead even as my missiles streaked off high into the air directly above Gold Virgo while the unguided rockets rode on flaming trails. The bullets from the gatling gun and the howitzer shells simply paled in comparison to the ongoing fireworks show, but were no less effective.

Just as Gold Virgo pushed her way out of the debris with the help of her Marionettes, she was greeted by the sight of a sky filled with lead, missiles and rockets. Immediately she reactivated her super-dodging dance, but I simply smirked as the ammunition struck the ground all around her in a wide radius. The explosions were oddly... satisfying to watch.

Gold Virgo was evidently able to dodge bullets, but dodging didn't work against explosive attacks. Especially when they hit a circular area of about 200m in radius. It was pretty obvious looking at the health gauges on top of my HUD - hers was steadily dropping to zero.

"How... how..." I heard Hoseki Takanashi gasp as I left my Accelerated state.

She was kneeling on the ground in defeat with a downtrodden expression on her face. Kyrius smiled warmly at me, while Ryusei and Sanno merely looked confused. Of course, Sanno probably didn't have me on his watchlist.

"Uh... I assume I just missed a duel," my brother scratched his head as he raised an eyebrow.

"You did. I-" Before I could continue, I was interrupted by an extremely irate Takanashi.

"There is absolutely no way I could lose to a... a... an airheaded girl like you!" she growled.

"There you have it," I shrugged. "I won."

"Miss Hoseki, I'll have you know I don't really approve of the way your fan club is treating me," Kyrius sighed as he leaned forward in his bed. "Being crazy about a guy is fine... but you need to set some limits. Don't get other people hurt - how many other girls have you driven away?"

"Kyrius-sama, you too!"

"Before you accuse Yuki for anything..." Kyrius shot a quick glance at me before directing an even glare at Takanashi as calmly as he could, although I could've sworn that the bulging vein on his forehead was about to pop. "She is not influencing me or anything. You need to tone down the fan club - don't drive people away just because they aren't part of the club."

The blonde nodded sullenly. When I met her eyes, a flash of loathing passed across her face momentarily, but it was soon replaced by guilt. I sighed... was Kyrius being a little too kind?

"This goes without saying, but you need to keep our real identities secret, Miss Hoseki," Kyrius said gravely, his face a neutral mask.

"I... will. Anything for you, Kyrius-sama..."

"Also, don't call me sama, it feels like I'm superior to you," Kyrius lost his serious tone, settling for a half-joking one with a smile on his face. "Just Kyrius will do."

"Yes, Kyrius-sa... Kyrius!" Takanashi's face lit up in joy and admiration.

"I feel like I missed out on a really good catfight," Sanno remarked.

"You should've seen it," Kyrius grinned. "It was pretty intense! Just get it from her later... if she lets you Direct Link with her."

"Aw, come on! You got me all hyped up to see it! Just show me your recording!" Sanno launched himself at Kyrius, only to be stopped by a finger pressed to his forehead.

I snickered at the sight and turned to face Takanashi. She still looked a bit sad, but otherwise was obviously trying to hold back her laughter at the duo and failing at it, just barely - she had her hand to her mouth stifling her laughter.

"Anyway, Hoseki-san... thanks for the match. It was quite fun," I held out my hand towards her.

"Eh? Oh... Well, you only caught me by surprise this time," she blinked before regaining her composure and turning up her nose at me. "Next time we meet, I'll crush you like a bug!"

"Right..." I drawled non-committedly.

She did shake my hand though, and left soon afterwards looking rather happy for some reason. Kyrius simply shrugged and motioned for me to return to the bedside.

"Now it's my turn!" Sanno suddenly spoke up and raised his hand. "Burst-"

*thwack*

"Hell no, Sanno," Kyrius growled as he lowered his hand.

Sanno was currently staggering around after getting hit in the face by a tough plastic bowl that had apparently previously been filled with porridge. It was pretty obvious from the way it was stuck on his face with the white stuff dripping from it...

"She just got out of a battle, give her a break!"

The pervert didn't seem to hear it... and his staggering was starting to get wilder. Suddenly he stumbled towards me and knocked against me, sending me sprawling onto Kyrius's bed...

...

"Mmmmph."

"Oh my."

"Mmmmph!"

I blinked in surprise as my brain struggled to consider the implications of my face being squashed against Kyrius's. I could feel his lips against mine... and I could tell that I was lying in a very compromising position... He was clearly afraid to move a single muscle at the moment...

...

Lips... pressed against his...

I gasped and quickly climbed back to my feet even as my face began to turn a particularly bright shade of red... Kyrius was also blushing brightly as he looked away. Slowly I raised a hand to my lips in shock...

"That was... a kiss... my first kiss..." I whispered faintly.

"Ummm... Your skirt..."

I turned my head around and noticed that the back of my miniskirt had hiked up to my waist during the fall. Standing behind me was a goggling, more conscious Erohara Sanno with his eyes clearly fixed where they shouldn't be looking.

"Onii-chan?" I enunciated clearly as I patted my skirt back down. A quick glance at my brother, who quickly stopped staring as I turned towards him, and the glint in his eyes told me that my message had gotten through.

"With pleasure," my brother flashed me an ominous grin.

One kicking and screaming Sanno being dragged out of the room later, I took an empty chair and sat down beside Kyrius's bed again with a sigh... only to blush again upon meeting his eyes and quickly turn away shyly.

"Sorry..." the both of us said simultaneously.

"No, I'm the one who should be-" I stopped my attempt to take the blame when I realized Kyrius was again saying the exact same thing at the exact same time.

We just sat there staring at each other in complete, utter silence for several seconds. One could've heard a pin dropping...

"How about we just blame Sanno?" I suggested after a while.

"Yeah... Sanno's at fault here," Kyrius nodded his agreement.

"Though... I actually... didn't mind it..." I whispered in a low tone shyly.

"Did you say something?"

"No, uh, nothing!"

I mentally slapped myself for almost revealing my embarrassing little crush on him. That was close - I hadn't been thinking clearly... My heart was beating so fast I thought it might burst out of my chest too... Why did that pervert have to bump into me like that? Ugh...

"So... uh... How's the hospital been treating you?" I asked in an attempt to break the silence and the awkward atmosphere.

"Typical hospital treatment..." he grumbled. "Foul-tasting medicine, tasteless hospital food and drinks..."

I forced myself to laugh.

"Yup, the usual stuff you'd expect of a hospital," he grimaced.

"I can't imagine myself living off tasteless porridge for several days either," I agreed. "At least you'll be out in a day or two."

"Yup. Are you going back to school tomorrow?" he asked.

"Nah, onii-chan would hold me back if I tried. Says I need to recover from that traumatic experience," I shook my head, relaxing slightly as the pace of the conversation returned to normal.

"I can certainly see him doing that."

"I know, right? He tends to get overprotective of me when something happens. Last time I tripped and scratched my knee when I was young, he refused to let me walk for a week and piggybacked me around the house," I recounted with an amused smile playing across my features.

"Really?" he grinned. "I think I would've done that if I had a younger sister."

"You did that to me though... when I tripped during PE..." I blushed. "It was actually quite similar to how onii-chan used to do it."

"Well, I could hardly ignore you, right?"

"I suppose so... That was my first bad encounter with your fangirl secret service though. And by extension Hoseki-san."

"Nice way to put it. Fangirl secret service," he blanched. "Next thing you know I'll be the president of Arisaka High."

"You'd probably do a good job at it," I smiled. "You're not the kind of person to abuse the responsibilities of the student council president."

"So you'd run for vice president if I ran for president?"

Caught off guard, I stared at him incredulously.

"You may not know it, but you're actually quite popular among the boys in the school. Your silver hair is quite distinctive, almost like it came out of an anime. Helps that you somehow manage to make it look perfectly natural," he shrugged.

"It's just a genetic defect though..." I tossed a few stray strands of hair back over my shoulder.

"It's just... 'you'. Uniquely 'you', Yuki," he offered.

"I... I suppose..." I began playing with my hair shyly. I never knew I had that kind of impact on other people...

Before any of us could say anything else, we were interrupted by a low moaning sound coming from the doorway. A limping Sanno entered the room clutching an area between his thighs, while a smirking Ryusei followed in behind him.

"... Onii-chan, did you seriously kick him there?" I blinked owlishly.

"Do you seriously want to know?" he grinned.

"Nope," I changed my mind.

"Good girl," Ryusei patted my head gently.

Sanno whimpered.

"I think we should probably get going soon though. It's almost time for lunch... I can't believe how fast time went by," my brother glanced at something on his HUD I couldn't see, likely his clock.

I nodded as I poured myself a cup of water from the water dispenser in the room and took a sip.

"Unless you'd rather spend the rest of the day here with your _boyfriend_?"

I managed to turn towards the window as the water I had been drinking spurted out of my mouth.

"ONII-CHAN! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" I spluttered in panic.

"Right..." he returned absently and began to whistle innocently.

"A... a... anyway, I think we should leave now..." I coughed in an attempt to hide my embarrassment ineffectively.

"Alright, Yuki. See you soon then," Kyrius waved as I half-dragged my smiling brother out of the room.

"Get better soon!" I called out as I closed the door.

I leaned against it panting for a while as I glared at my brother, my face still flushed with embarrassment.

"Good work, my cute little sister," he grinned.

"Dishes. Whole week," I growled as I made to leave.

"Ouch."

* * *

I flopped onto the couch in my living room tiredly and buried my face in the belly of the lion plushie I left lying on it. It felt like I had just been through the most tiring morning ever in my life... Not even half the day had passed yet and I already felt completely bombed...

Suddenly I felt a jab in my ribs, and gave a sharp yelp of surprise as I jerked upright.

"You sure look worn out," Ryusei grinned mischievously.

I responded with a plushie smack to the face.

"And whose fault do you think that is?" I glared at him.

"Alright, alright!" he held up his hands defensively in an attempt to pacify me. "I'll treat you to a full tub of chocolate ice cream!"

The offer made me lose focus as my face took on a dreamy expression at the thought of digging into that much chocolate ice cream all to myself... Luckily I caught myself before I could start drooling.

"... You're still doing the dishes for another three days," I grumbled at having fallen for my brother's bribe so easily. Curse you, sweet tooth!

"Thanks, Yuki-chan," he grinned again.

"For the record, Kyrius is not my boyfriend!" I sighed as I plonked myself back down on the couch while hugging the lion plushie I had smacked my brother with earlier.

_Not yet... Wait, what am I thinking?_

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Must be the stress getting to me.

"Uhuh... We'll see," my brother nodded.

I merely grunted and made to chuck another pillow at him, but this time he saw it coming and dodged it. The doorbell rang before I could pick up another pillow though. Before Ryusei could react, I had connected to the camera in front of the apartment door to see who it was. Much to my surprise, standing there were two very familiar-looking people.

"Inoha, Aida!" I squealed in delight as I practically ran to the door to admit them in.

"Hello hello, Yuki-chan!" Inaho waved cheerily as I half-flung the door open.

"Ahoy, my fair classmate!" Aida saluted as he entered, eliciting a giggle or two from Inaho and I.

"What are you two doing here?" I asked, taking note of the fact that they were still in their school uniforms.

"Well, we heard the news and rushed over to see how you were doing as soon as we could. Thankfully the teacher allowed us to leave school early to see you..." Inaho smiled as she pressed a large box into my hands. "And a little present the class chipped in to buy for you!"

I tentatively accepted the box and opened the lid after putting it on the table in my living room. As I did, a very familiar scent wafted out of the box and I found my saliva freely flowing...

"Chocolate cake!" I squealed in delight.

"Not so fast, Yuki-chan," Ryusei appeared out of nowhere chuckling before he grabbed the cake box out from right under my nose.

"Onii-chan!" I growled as he set the box down on another table.

"At least cut it first before you end up completely dunking your nose in it!" he pointed right at my face. Suddenly I became aware of a frosty coating on the tip of my nose – a quick wipe revealed a bit of the brown fudge that had coated the top of the cake.

Oops.

I blushed bright red as even Inoha and Aida began to laugh heartily at my little predicament. Once I regained my senses, a quick trip to the bathroom took care of the fudge and I returned to the living room still a bit red to find Ryusei cutting the cake into slices with a knife. He flashed me a thumbs up and an all-knowing grin that made me get even redder if that was possible… I just pouted and went back to the couch where Inoha and Aida were sitting, chatting amicably with each other.

"So how are you feeling now, after the kidnapping?" Inoha asked hesitantly even as she twiddled her thumbs.

"Weren't you scared during the kidnapping?" Aida added.

"I'm honestly fine now… and yeah, I was scared until Kyrius came…"

"That's good to know, but how did he know where you were at the time?"

I paused for a moment to think about how I was going to cover my usage of Brain Burst up, before saying, "Well, I sent out a message when they allowed me to connect to the Global Net to make that call. He told me that he would be in the area a while back for some shopping after all… I hoped he'd be able to make it."

"Lucky you then…" Aida sighed. "I guess we really do have our esteemed class representative to thank for our silver-haired goddess still being with us."

Just when my blush subsided, I felt it coming back again after that particular comment. Before I could completely go red, I quickly excused myself to go to the dining table to grab a slice of cake that Ryusei had just finished putting on a plate. It was a pretty big chunk, and I was grateful for it. This time I also made sure to keep my nose out of it as I carried it to the living room with a spoon to eat.

"How long will it be before you come back to school?" Inoha grinned as she noticed me holding the cake like it was a prized jewel or something.

"Just a day or two. Same as Kyrius – he'll be discharged sometime then too. Have you been to visit him yet?" I replied as I took a bite out of the cake. Ah, it felt like chocolate melting in my mouth… utter bliss…

"That's good to know," Aida nodded. "Just so you know, you still need to finish the homework given out these few days you've been absent."

Inoha quickly brought up something on her Neuro Linker interface and sent me a file. I accepted it and began flipping through it, letting out an audible groan as I flipped past the one on Japanese History. A two-page essay on a major figure of the Sengoku era…

Inoha caught on to the reason for the groan instantly. "I know, right? Luckily we get two weeks to work on it. Takeda-sensei's really too passionate about the Sengoku era sometimes…"

"I still remember that time he wore Sengoku-era armour to the school festival, swinging around a fake katana too," I shook my head in exasperation. "I really don't get him…"

"Neither do I," Aida agreed.

Without noticing it, the conversation quickly changed to a more light-hearted one about the other teachers and their various hobbies. It carried on until evening when the two of them had to go home. I reluctantly stored what was left of the cake in the refrigerator while my two best friends left. Considering the amount of extra stomach space I seemed to have when it came to chocolate, that wasn't very much.

For dinner, Ryusei decided to order take-out. A quick order on the Pizza Hut website and a five-minute wait later, the doorbell rang and he paid the delivery boy while bringing in a box of steaming hot pizza. Unfortunately most of my stomach space was still occupied by the cake so I could only stuff in a slice or two before I had to call it quits.

After that I decided to retire early for the day and took a quick bath before popping under the sheets and saying good night to my brother.

* * *

**Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I quite simply ran out of ideas on how to continue it. There will be a timeskip of a week after this chapter, and some new OCs will also make their appearance.**

**Also... *does an imitation of a zombie***

_**Revieeeeews...**_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Long chapter! Two more OCs introduced here... and some other surprises I'm not gonna spoil in this beginning A/N. =P**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

I squinted up at the sky, covering my eyes under the sharp, bright glare of the sun. It had been a week since the kidnapping incident, and both Kyrius and I were back in school already. Our lives were mostly back to normal now, and it seemed like Takanashi had managed to get his fan club off my tail. I still felt the occasional glare on my back though.

"Nice run."

I smiled at Kyrius as he approached me with a sports drink in hand. We were having PE now, and I had just finished my run, breaking my previous record while I was at it too. It was a pretty satisfying achievement for me.

"Ever thought of joining the track club?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm not dedicated enough to train for hours on end. Plus, my stamina sucks," I shook my head. "I can only run around three laps before I burn out."

"Oh. Pity, you're a reasonably fast runner," the blonde foreigner shrugged.

"Didn't have to do much running during the battle against that cyan-coloured Burst Linker... What was his name again?" I mused.

"Can't remember either. I only remember him using a pile bunker..."

"Cyan Bunker?"

"Doesn't sound right. Never mind."

I took in another deep gulp of air before getting up. PE was almost over after all, and I was already half-soaked in sweat after all that running out under the hot sun... I couldn't wait to hit the showers.

"It's too hot out today..." I groaned as I fanned myself with my hand.

"I know, right?" Kyrius agreed, taking another sip from his drink. I noted it was a cold one. "Want a sip?"

... I felt my cheeks turning red as my mind began to cycle through the implications of that... "Eh... No... I'll buy one later?" I forced the thoughts aside ruthlessly.

_Not yet, Yuki, not yet!_

"Okay then," he said.

As we made to return to the school building, some movement to our right on the path leading to the office block of the school caught our attention. Walking along it was a petite girl in our school's uniform with brown hair falling to her shoulders. Half-framed glasses sat on the bridge of her nose. What really got my attention were her skin colour and facial features. She was definitely not Japanese... American if I had to hazard a guess.

She was flanked by a short woman and a relatively tall man, both with brown hair. Probably her parents... Was she transferring in? This was a pretty late time of the year to do it. Also, she actually looked quite familiar to me, but because of the distance I couldn't get a picture good enough to put my finger on.

"A transfer student at this time of the year?" Inaho walked up beside me.

"Looks like it. She's a foreigner too like Kyrius," I nodded, my gaze following the girl until she disappeared into the school office block.

Kyrius nodded too, looking deep in thought. "Probably American," he said.

"We'll find out more about her later I assume," I smiled.

"Yup," Inaho agreed. "Want to hit the showers now, Yuki-chan? I'm utterly drenched in sweat!"

"Yup!"

* * *

Just as I had predicted, it was right afterwards that we heard more news about the new transfer student. Inoha, Aida and I were gathered around Kyrius's table after returning from the showers, as we had become fast friends after the past week. Of course, Sanno was in the circle of friends but he was in a different class.

What really irked me was that there were now two perverts in the group... although personally I thought Aida was more sensible.

"Alright, settle down!"

Everyone quickly scuttled back to their seats as the homeroom teacher walked into the class. This wasn't the right period for him... He looked around for a while, taking attendance mentally while he waited for everyone to take their seats.

"I know this is a bit sudden, but we have another student joining us today," he cast a short glance in the direction of the still-open doorway before continuing, "Please be nice to her, I expect you guys to treat her as family!"

Into the class walked the same foreigner we had seen just now. Now that she was closer I could really see the height difference... She looked to be about 130 cm tall - really small for her age... Her uniform almost seemed like it was hanging off her petite frame.

It kind of reminded me of a similar friend from my childhood, small for her age with shoulder length brown hair... and was an American... and wore half-framed glasses...

...

Oh my god. No wonder she looked so familiar.

"I'm Phoenicia Rayes..." her voice wavered as she adjusted her glasses nervously. "I'm descended from an American family that moved here after the last World War... Pleased to meet you, and I hope we... we get along..."

"Fini-chan!" I stood up excitedly, forgetting where I was in my joy at seeing my old childhood friend again.

"Eh!? Yuki-chan!?" she gasped, all her nervousness gone in an instant.

"It really is you!" I laughed happily as I got out of my seat and raced to the front of the class to greet her.

"I didn't know you went to this school!" she smiled.

"You never told me you were going to transfer here!"

"Well... I guess I just got so nervous about it and forgot. How have you been lately? I read about that kidnapping case in the papers..."

"Let's put that aside for now, Fini-chan," I felt my smile falter for a bit, but I didn't let it stop me.

What stopped me was a distinct throat-clearing sound coming from beside me. Ah, the teacher.

"While I can understand your joyous reunion, we are in class right now, Tsukihara-san," he said with an amused smile. "Please do save the storytelling for after school or during recess though."

I looked around and noticed the rest of the class laughing at me. Even Kyrius was grinning while Inoha and Aida were snickering.

"Eh... Um..." I felt myself going quite red with embarrassment... "Sorry, sensei..."

"No harm done," he waved it off. "Since there's an empty seat behind you, how about you sit there, Rayes-san?"

Phoenicia distinctly cheered up at the thought of sitting behind me in class as she cried out, "Yes!"

"Good, now I know you two are good friends but don't give me any trouble by talking in class," he grinned light-heartedly.

Phoenicia and I blushed at being chided like that in front of the class while the rest of the class roared with laughter. Less than 10 seconds later we were in our seats shuffling uncomfortably as the laughter began to tide out. Once everything calmed down, I brought up my Neuro Linker's messaging function, started a chatroom, and sent invites to all of my friends in the same class. They all quickly accepted as the teacher began to talk.

**Yukina: Hey everyone! I know this isn't really an urgent matter, but I'd just like to introduce my best friend to you guys.**

**Phoenicia: Hello…**

I flashed a grin at her.

**Kyrius: Pleased to meet you, Miss Rayes. I'm Kyrius Igzelier, the class representative.**

**Inoha: Hello hello, Fini-chan! Is it okay if I call you that?**

**Phoenicia: I don't really mind, Inoha-san.**

**Inoha: Alright! I'm Akizaki Inoha. The other guy in this chatroom now is Orino Aida.**

**Aida: Hi there, Fini-chan! Inoha-chan, let me introduce myself at least!**

Inoha shot a sharp glare at Aida, who recoiled as if stung by a bee.

**Inoha: If you did that, you'd probably go off tangent and start babbling about certain body proportions.**

**Aida: That's mean of you, Inoha-chan! You know I'd never chase anyone else's pert butt…**

Another sharp glare, this one filled with venom. Aida looked horrified.

**Inoha: See what I mean?**

Phoenicia obviously had to struggle to hold in her giggles. Luckily the homeroom teacher had walked out earlier to be replaced by our Japanese History teacher, who was too caught up in his own passionate speech about some Sengoku-era battle to notice us.

**Yukina: So, how about we bring Fini-chan around to tour the school during lunch break?**

**Kyrius: Why not? Miss Rayes, you don't really know much about the school now, right?**

**Phoenicia: Not really, aside from what I got off the school brochure.**

**Inoha: Yay! So which one should we explore first, reality or the school network?**

**Yukina: I'd say reality first. We can bring her around the school network tomorrow.**

**Phoenicia: Also, Kyrius-san, can you just call me Phoenicia instead? Miss Rayes sounds a bit too formal.**

**Kyrius: Okay then. Did you bring your lunch, Phoenicia? If not we'll head to the cafeteria first thing during lunch beak.**

**Aida: I just noticed, you're American right, Fini-chan? I thought you'd be using English titles like Kyrius rather than the Japanese honorifics.**

**Phoenicia: My family's been staying in Japan long enough. I've been using the honorifics since I was young.**

**Yukina: The two of us lived in adjacent apartments when we were young. Her parents used to drag her over to my place to get her nose out of her books and open up.**

**Phoenicia: Yu... Yuki-chan!**

**Yukina: Alright, alright! She moved away with her parents when we were in grade school, but we stayed in contact with each other. She still hasn't changed a bit.**

**Phoenicia: I almost didn't recognize you when I entered the class, Yuki-chan. You've changed so much outside... I'm jealous...**

**Aida: Hey, don't be! You're small and cute - not all guys like the classy beauties like Yuki-chan here.**

I felt like I was being insulted and praised at the same time for some reason.

**Yukina: Are you implying something, Aida-kun...?**

**Phoenicia: Thanks for trying to cheer me up though, Aida-san.**

**Aida: Eh, eh, you're welcome?**

**Inoha: Aida-baka, go get kicked by a horse and die.**

**Yukina: Seconded, you paedophile.**

**Aida: Why me!?**

Phoenicia let out a muffled giggle while Aida did a mock-faint.

**Inoha: I saw that!**

**Yukina: I think I should close the chatroom now before we all get too distracted from class. Any objections?**

**Kyrius: Nope.**

**Inoha: I hope this doesn't come out in the test.**

**Phoenicia: Agreed.**

**Aida: No objections!**

**Yukina: We have a verdict.**

It felt like ages until time came for lunch break. Mathematics seemed to pass by in slow motion as I furiously worked out the solutions to the problems the teacher fired at us. After that came the utterly boring Social Studies which I spent catching up with Phoenicia unnoticed by the teacher who droned onwards in a flat voice that sent a lot of my classmates spiralling into the realm of Morpheus.

Aida and Inoha were apparently playing a game using their Neuro Linkers, while Kyrius looked bored as he drummed his fingers on the table. He caught my gaze and flashed me a quick smile. I smiled back as I returned to discussing previous classmates with Phoenicia. She may be a bookworm, but even she had times when she couldn't stand epicly boring teachers.

**Yukina: Say, any good books to recommend?**

**Phoenicia: You could try the Network Warrior series, knowing your love for more action-packed literature.**

**Yukina: Eheheh... Of course you still remember that...**

**Phoenicia: You'd think that as a girl you'd be more into romance...**

**Yukina: Maybe having an onii-chan who infected me with a love for 3D shooters helped...**

**Phoenicia: I suppose. How's Ryusei-san doing?**

**Yukina: Onii-chan's living with me now.**

**Phoenicia: I gathered as much from the news article. About your kidnapping.**

**Yukina: Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Onii-chan wouldn't let me out of his sight for five days after that incident... Even going to the toilet, he had to post guard outside for me.**

**Phoenicia: Sounds like him all right...**

I let out a sigh of relief as the bell rang to indicate the end of the period and the start of lunch break. The sleeping students in the class jerked awake as the teacher left with a parting gift in the form of a three-page essay on the influence of Neuro Linker technology on modern life... and the groans of those sober enough to catch the assignment.

Of course, the teacher didn't seem to care.

Another sigh escaped my lips while I logged the new, offending piece of homework into my to-do list. I didn't mind the Sengoku stuff given out by the Japanese History teacher - I took it as a lesson in tactics to use on the unlimited battlefields of the Accelerated World if anything. But Social Studies had to be the worst subject I was taking...

I comforted myself knowing I'd be shot of it in another two years once I got out of high school.

Again we gathered around Kyrius's table before making our way towards the cafeteria through the throngs of other students lounging about the corridor. The five of us chatted animatedly as we wove between people. The air here was filled with happy chatter, and some grumbling about lessons and teachers that I tuned out.

The road to the cafeteria was actually quite short, as the first year block was the closest to the school's central block where the cafeteria was located. Lucky we managed to get there before the seniors did, so we had first dibs on the best food. I settled for beef udon - my second favourite food after French cuisine and chocolate. I couldn't quite decide which one I liked better among those two, so I left it at a tie for first place.

"It's a wonder you don't get fat with all that meat you eat..." Phoenicia stirred her fruit juice idly while staring at me happily slurping away at my udon.

"Fast metabolism?" I offered.

"Maybe," she mused as she began to blow on her own bowl of chicken udon. "This smells nice."

"Doesn't it?" Inoha chirped enthusiastically. "The udon is the best on the menu here. Our chef came from an udon store after all."

"Really? No wonder it doesn't quite smell like normal cafeteria food," Phoenicia exclaimed after taking another whiff.

I just chuckled while taking another spoonful of udon. All of a sudden, I caught Phoenicia whispering two words silently. If I didn't know what to look for, I certainly wouldn't have noticed... But there was simply no way she would whisper that for no reason. My eyes widened as the world around me suddenly froze in time and turned blue.

The change in scenery that accompanied the Acceleration this time around was drastic and sudden - the walls of the school were replaced with a hard, alien substance overgrown with strange roots. Equally strange bugs crawled around the walls, and I shuddered a little as one drew a bit too close - I was scared of them...

"EH!?"

I looked across the table I was sitting at to find a purple Duel Avatar of average height on the seat opposite me. Beside me was a surprised Kyrius in his watcher avatar, with the black cloak, mask and demonic-looking wings.

"I'm as surprised as you are, Fini-chan!" I blurted out.

Phoenicia in her Duel Avatar form had a comparatively taller, slender body with two large eyes, light armour with a flowery theme and two trailing sections of armour resembling chains of flower petals. A short, thigh-length skirt covered her hips matched with a short cape going around her back made of flower petals too. Her Duel Avatar also had long hair going down to her mid-back of a lighter shade of purple.

Wait, not purple - I corrected myself, her Duel Avatar was called Violet Sage. Multi-range...

"Yuki-chan!? I didn't know you were a Burst Linker!" Phoenicia gasped.

"This is a surprise..." Kyrius muttered as he folded his arms.

"Kyrius-san!? Not you too!" the violet Burst Linker backpedalled comically until she knocked over her own chair.

"Yes, me too," he nodded as he stood up.

With a spectacular flourish of his fingers, a shroud of shadows wrapped around him, completely obscuring him from sight. Knowing what was about to happen, I just shrugged as the shroud disappeared to reveal a very familiar black-coloured Duel Avatar wrapped in a cloak that appeared to be made out of solidified shadows.

Violet Sage just stood there no doubt doing an impression of a goldfish as her arms hung loosely by her sides.

"I think you broke her, Kyrius," I remarked casually while waving my hand in front of her eyes. No response.

"Really?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

A sharp poke in her ribs had a more noticeable effect as she jerked away and shrieked loudly.

"YOU'RE SHADOW PHANTOM!?" she practically screamed.

"Fini-chan, breathe..." I patted her on her back gently - it looked like she had forgotten to breathe in her shock. The surprised Duel Avatar quickly gulped down several deep breaths before turning to glare at me.

"Why are you traipsing around with a... with a... with the Reaper!?" she demanded with a scared look at Kyrius in his Duel Avatar form.

"Ummm... You forgot he saved my life, Fini-chan..."

Her eyes narrowed. "Explain. Now."

* * *

"So that's how you found out where Yuki-chan was..." Phoenicia mused, still casting a few apprehensive glances at Kyrius every now and then. I could understand her worries - as Shadow Phantom, Kyrius was quite infamous in the Suginami district after all.

"I wouldn't be here without him, Fini-chan," I nodded. "I owe him so much, I don't feel like I could ever repay him. So... don't murder him please..."

Phoenicia guffawed as I finished my last sentence. "Like I could... Yuki-chan, you're like the sister I never had. I'm just worried about you being with a supposed cold-blooded killer. Shadow Phantom doesn't have the most impressive reputation after all..."

"Guilty as charged," Kyrius held up his hands in surrender, "Let's just say I don't like giving my opponents chances."

"Either way, I still don't quite trust you..." Phoenicia sighed resignedly. "But you did save Yuki-chan so I'll leave you alone for now."

"I appreciate that," the black-clad Burst Linker nodded. "Come to think of it, we still have yet to get in another real battle, Yuki."

"Maybe later, Kyrius," I suggested. I didn't know if I should be looking forward to it.

"Speaking of battling, Yuki-chan... I don't really feel like fighting you," Phoenicia sighed again. "I feel like I've been surprised more today than any other day of my life."

"Neither do I, Fini-chan," I agreed. "Still... Violet Sage? You've certainly always been the bookworm."

"I can't help it! Anyway, want me to show you my abilities?"

"Why not?" I grinned.

Violet Sage took several steps back into a clearer area and visibly inhaled deeply as she reached out with her left hand. Suddenly, a floating... book appeared over the outstretched hand while the petals forming her cape and the trails behind her began to glow a pink hue.

The book flipped open and with a quick tap on a page, the cape and petal trails... broke apart. Each individual petal floated into the air riding on trails of violet light, assuming a formation around Violet Sage. It was quite a picturesque sight... and very fitting for the Phoenicia I knew.

"So... what do the petals do?" I asked.

A flick on the book and the petals immediately flew towards a wall nearby. They all reoriented themselves to point their stalks at it, which opened up to reveal miniscule gun barrels... and fired. Almost two dozen beams of bright purple energy slammed into the wall, carving out a perfect circle in it.

"You get... flying drones armed with lasers?" I gaped. "Cool!"

"Not as cool as your railgun though..." Phoenicia sighed as her petals floated back towards her.

"You don't have to charge up your special gauge to use it," I shrugged. "Plus I have a long charging time on that attack..."

"Then I guess we're even," she smiled brightly. "We'll end this in a draw, Yuki-chan. Maybe we can spar together sometime else."

"Yeah," I agreed as the alien world around us faded away to be replaced with reality.

I blinked as I returned to reality, and realized I still had a spoonful of udon halfway to my mouth. Phoenicia, still sitting across me, flashed me a knowing wink as she began to dig into her own udon. Kyrius was just looking out the window, apparently enthralled by the scenery outside.

Just as I was about to put the spoon into my mouth, the world froze yet again and all too soon I found myself back in the Accelerated World.

This time, however, the battlefield appeared to be the Arctic stage rather than the Purgatory stage. Everywhere I looked, I saw sheets of ice and large, hollow buildings made of ice. In fact, I was in one now, sitting on a bench made of ice together with two watcher avatars.

"Not again," Kyrius muttered, back in his winged avatar.

The other one was a... short-statured fairy with four petal shaped-wings on her back. The long brown hair, glasses, violet colour scheme and the large book under her right arm were dead giveaways as to her real identity...

"Eh? So fast?" Phoenicia blinked in surprise. "Another challenge already?"

I quickly checked the enemy location indicator, which indicated that my opponent was outside the building. No sound though, which meant he probably wasn't moving.

"Kyrius, Fini-chan, you two better go watch from somewhere else," I said as I summoned my gun with an expert twirl of my hand.

Phoenicia gaped. "That is one HUGE gun."

I simply smiled at her as I leapt out the window to meet my challenger. Tungsten Ronin... a metal colour. Ronin... what did that mean? There was absolutely no way a college dropout would be a workable class in Brain Burst... Oh well, I'd just have to see for myself.

The glint of sunlight off metal caught my attention a few moments later. The source was standing in an open field, a grey-coloured clearly masculine Burst Linker with medium armour resembling that of a samurai. A helmet with a black V-fin covered his head, allowing him to see through a transparent visor where his eyes would be. Two long katanas were gripped tightly in his hands as he assumed a scorpion-like stance with one katana held high and the other low, both pointed directly towards me.

"Ruby Sniper. I was wondering when you'd show up," he inclined his head slightly.

"Tungsten Ronin... I've seen you before in the school network," I levelled my gun at him while spreading my feet to get better balance.

"You're pretty famous yourself now too. After beating Shadow Phantom, who was higher levelled at the time."

"Technically I didn't beat him... It was a draw..." I laughed weakly.

"You reduced his health to zero, right? Technically you did beat him. Even if it was a Twin KO," he refuted.

Well, to be honest I hadn't looked at it that way, but it did make me feel a bit happy. Off on a nearby frozen rooftop, I saw the person in question shrug and then nod in acknowledgment.

"He's in this school too, you should know," I said.

"I know. I've seen him in the matching list dozens of times."

"Well... I think we've talked enough. Let's have a good duel," I smiled.

"Right. Here I come!"

Tungsten Ronin exploded into action faster than I thought possible - within 10 seconds he had closed the gap between us, forcing me to use my gun to block the horizontal slash he directed at me. His other katana came down, forcing me to duck and spin sideways to dodge it.

I could see that sticking to close range was just going to get myself killed, so I scattered a few landmines and a sensor pod before backing off a little. He noticed though, and a slash sent an energy wave flying at the mines, setting them off harmlessly from a good distance away.

"Tch," I gritted my teeth. So much for that plan.

Again, he got in closer only to falter as I pelted him with rounds from my point-defence guns. They didn't do any noticeable damage, but gave me time to switch my gun to gatling mode at which point I joined in firing. Sadly he managed to roll aside behind a block of ice before my attack could do much.

I didn't wait for the ronin to come out - instead I switched to howitzer mode and fired a shell up vertically into the air. It came down to land just behind the block of ice, shattering it with the area-of-effect blast and exposing... nothing. Tungsten Ronin wasn't there!

"Crescent Fang!"

I ducked under the slicing waves of energy that came flying at me from behind, and raised my gun to deflect the second pair. Even while I was still doing the swinging motion, Tungsten Ronin didn't let up. I found him directly in front of me in a flash, and before I knew what had happened, there was a sharp pain in my gut and I flew backwards into a wall.

_How do I get away from him? He's relentless!_

I recovered quickly and rolled aside just in time to dodge a vertical slash. The horizontal one that followed I parried with my gun, and when he spun around to get another hit in, I hit the tip of his blade with an impact shell from my gun, stopping his spin and allowing me to drive my foot into his stomach to send him flying a good distance away.

The grey-coloured Burst Linker was quick enough to land on his feet though, and was soon charging back towards me while I seeded more landmines. This time he merely sidestepped the danger zone to deliver slashes to my side. I had to block both his katanas with my gun, but he easily overpowered me and pushed me to the ground.

"No way I'm going down this easily!" I growled. "Rocket Barrage!"

The lower part of the gun facing my opponent opened up. Several rockets streaked out of it, striking the unsuspecting Duel Avatar in the torso and sending him flying. Yet again, he nimbly recovered and returned towards me with a vengeance.

Before Tungsten Ronin could get in close enough, I aimed my gun at the ground in front of me in gatling mode and proceeded to repeat the same trick I had used against Gold Virgo before, cratering the ground underneath the snow. As expected, the grey Duel Avatar lost his balance while crossing the uneven ground, enough for me to knock him over with a howitzer shot.

After activating my jammer, I fired my grappling hooks at an ice block a good distance away and pulled myself to it. Satisfied that I wasn't being followed, I retreated a good distance away while seeding sensor pods and more landmines. I took extra care to bury them in the snow though, to avoid detection.

"Ruby Sniper, fight on! Ruby Sniper, fight on!"

I flashed a grin at Phoenicia, who was waving excitedly at me from another ice pillar nearby together with Kyrius. Once I thought I was far enough away, I switched to sniper rifle mode and aimed back downrange towards Tungsten Ronin. He was already on the move, but somehow he knew where I was and was heading directly towards me... even with my location indicator jamming still active...

...

I smacked myself for my stupidity - this was a snow map! Of course he'd be able to see the tracks I left in the snow! Ugh, so much for my jamming advantage... But regardless, I'd need to hurry up and take him out. Judging by the explosions lighting up every now and then, he was tripping a lot of mines. Probably effective this time seeing as his health gauge dropped a bit with each explosion...

"Well, better hurry up and charge..." I groaned.

The barrel of the gun extended out to twice its original length and split sideways, allowing long rails to extend from inside. I had to grip it with both hands even while deploying the stabilising pile to make sure I could fire accurately, or else the recoil would knock me for six and completely throw my aim off.

Once the gun had completely shifted into railgun mode, I began charging. A crackle of electricity resounded through the air as energy began to collect around the rails. A smell of ozone permeated the air, while I silently kept hoping that my mines would be enough to hold Tungsten Ronin off...

"75%... Come on..." I whispered as the approaching Duel Avatar came close enough for me to see the patterns on his armour clearly. "95, 96, 97..."

He was close enough to see his katanas being readied to strike...

"100! Railgun Stri-"

All of a sudden, one of Tungsten Ronin's katanas came flying towards me. I gasped and ducked aside to dodge, but to no avail as the weapon hit my shoulder and took it clean off.

"GAH!" I gritted my teeth in pain even as I desperately pulled the trigger with my remaining hand.

By then, my opponent was already in front of me, poised to strike. The railgun shot went wide as it jerked from the recoil without my second arm to stabilise it. It easily broke the sound barrier as it exited the barrel, and whipped right past Tungsten Ronin's helmet to pierce through a cluster of frozen buildings in the distance. A cloud of hot, ionised plasma left the gun through the sides of the barrel, blowing my opponent aside just as he was about to land a hit.

Well... not really the outcome I had expected, but it still worked.

Straining a bit to lift my heavy gun with only one arm, I turned to look at Tungsten Ronin, who had been blown into a nearby pillar of ice. As expected of a rare metal coloured Burst Linker, he was still alive. Darned heat resistance... Oh well. I carefully approached him while training my point defence guns on him. Once I was close enough to get a certain hit, I switched my gun to howitzer mode.

"Good fight... Tungsten Ronin," I squeezed the trigger.

Quick as a flash, Tungsten Ronin recovered and with a last good swing of his arm, threw his second katana towards me. This time, I didn't quite manage to dodge in time and the blade went through my chest at the same time my gun spat a large high explosive round at him.

... "Ugh," I gasped as I fell backwards.

I did have the satisfaction of seeing my final bullet deal the finishing blow though, just before I blacked out.

"Are you okay, Yuki-chan? You look like you're spacing out a lot more often lately."

I blinked as I lowered the spoon I was about to eat from before the Acceleration. Inoha was looking at me worriedly, while Phoenicia wore a small smile on her face and Kyrius just continued looking out at the scenery as if nothing had happened. Suddenly he brought up his Neuro Linker interface and began typing on it. A message soon popped up on my HUD...

**I know who Tungsten Ronin is.**

I blinked in surprise. That fast and he already figured it out? But then again, he had done the same with me... I looked at the photo that had accompanied the message. It depicted a boy our age with short, slicked back black hair in our school's uniform looking in our direction. He was of average height, with striking crimson eyes that seemed to have flames blazing within...

"Not going to eat?" Aida asked cheekily as he reached for my bowl.

"Hands off, paedophile," I growled as I slapped his hand away protectively and continued digging in.

"You hurt my feelings, oh silver snowflower..." he mock-fainted.

I ignored the others' laughter as I studied the image. He wasn't really familiar to me... But I did hear a gasp from Phoenicia after I saw Kyrius send something to her - likely the very same message. She replied to both of us a moment later.

**I know him! He's Yoshikuni Tsubasa, a childhood friend of mine!**

Wow, some connections our little group of Burst Linkers had.

Phoenicia quickly finished up her food and rushed outside in a hurry, much to Aida and Inoha's confusion. I saw her outside a moment later, talking happily with Tsubasa although the distance was too great for me to pick up much besides a few little snippets of conversation. I did detect the use of 'Tsu-chan' a few times though.

At one point, Tsubasa looked surprised and cast another glance in our direction. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she had just told him, so I just waved at him, smiling. The black-haired teen did a double-take and looked back at Phoenicia incredulously, who only nodded happily as she took his hand and dragged him out of our view. Not too long later, the two of them made their reappearance beside the table we were sitting at.

"Guys, meet another one of my childhood friends!" Phoenicia gushed happily. "He's Yoshikuni Tsubasa, I met him after Yuki-chan and I split ways and got into different middle schools."

"Nice to meet you, Yoshikuni-san," I nodded at him as I held out my hand.

"Nice to meet you too, Tsukihara-san," he took my hand and we exchanged knowing handshakes. "You're pretty easy to recognize, being the only person with silver hair in the school,"

"Ahahaha... It's a genetic defect," I chuckled embarrassedly as I flicked a few stray strands of it back over my shoulder.

"That and I heard about your kidnapping too. Igzelier-san, that was you, right?" he smiled as he looked over at Kyrius.

"Just call me Kyrius. I'm not too used to Japanese honorifics yet despite all my time here in Japan," Kyrius offered.

"Alright then, Kyrius. I'll insist on you referring to me by Tsubasa then," Tsubasa laughed.

"Hello there, Tsubasa-san! I'm Akizaki Inoha and this paedophile here is Orino Aida," Inoha greeted before Aida had the chance to interrupt.

"Paedophile?" Tsubasa raised an eyebrow questioningly as he stared at Aida.

"Is there any need to destroy my well-respected image before I even get to talk to him?" the person in question groaned.

I snorted derisively, "Well-respected? As if."

"Main point, he's a pervert who's into petite girls..." Inoha whispered loudly to make sure everyone at the table heard it.

Phoenicia giggled while Kyrius was trying to maintain his usual stoic face. His twitching facial muscles betrayed him though, but only to the trained eye. I grinned at him, and he let his mask fall for a short moment to grin back. Aida just huffed and did his best to project a pitiful image.

"I suppose we had better get going, lunch break's almost over," I said after a quick check of my clock.

"Then I guess that's that for now, Tsu-chan," Phoenicia beamed as she turned to regard her childhood friend.

"Right. I'll see you later then, Fini-chan," Tsubasa nodded, and gave a polite bow as he turned to leave.

**By the way, you sure seem to have a knack for drawing matches by Twin KO...**

I shot a glare at a smirking Kyrius.

**It's not like I want to do it all the time! I let my guard down... I won't do it again!**

**So you say... Your brother can't really train you in duelling since he's not a Burst Linker. All he can do is provide tactical and strategical input.**

**So what do you propose I do?**

Kyrius simply smiled before whispering a certain pair of words I knew very well.

"Burst Link."

I groaned as I was pulled into the Accelerated World for the third time today. The world before me rapidly deconstructed itself, concrete, glass and plastic fragmenting itself and scattering about seemingly randomly in the form of tiny particles before reforming in the style of an old Japanese castle, complete with lush greenery outside.

"Old Castle stage, huh," a disembodied voice came from in front of me even as a familiar black-cloaked form materialised in front of me.

"What's this about, Kyrius?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Come at me with all you have, Ruby Sniper!" Shadow Phantom drew his scythe out of thin air and charged.

I barely managed to summon my gun to parry in time - the blade stopped a mere centimetre from my cheek. I knew I'd never be able to hold my own against his strength in close combat though, so I quickly activated my point-defence guns and shot him in the arm, giving me an opening to retreat behind a cluster of landmines.

"I'm not falling for that twice."

With a muffled curse I spun my gun around to deflect another blow from the side - Shadow Phantom had merely sidestepped the mines, while his long scythe gave him enough reach to attack me over them.

"You need to remember that not all opponents will be as blind as Crimson Fencer was during your fight with him," he lectured as he took another mighty swing at my midsection, which I blocked with an impact round to the end of the blade with my gun in howitzer mode. "Very nice usage of physics on melee blocking with a ranged attack by the way. Torque and all."

I growled, unable to concentrate enough to talk while in the middle of defending against his flurry of attacks. A spinning slash delivered to my midsection forced me to ram my gun into the ground to block it, but as the attack rebounded, Shadow Phantom got in a slash with one of his blade legs to my arm that I only managed to deflect by angling my arm so that he hit my armour at a steep angle. Once he was off guard, I aimed a kick to his midsection and quickly backed off to a safe distance as he stumbled backwards.

"Nice application of slanted armour," he remarked casually.

"I have my brother to thank for that," I replied while switching my gun to gatling mode.

Shadow Phantom only nodded and continued attacking. This time, he reached out with a hand and summoned several spiky black chains from his shadow, each ending in a diamond-shaped weight.

"Shadow Chain."

The chains flew towards me immediately, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he had spaced them out intentionally to prevent them from being deflected all at once in one swing of my gun. I quickly slammed my gun into the ground stock-first, allowing the underside to open up to reveal an array of rocket launchers.

"Rocket Salvo!" I fired the rockets directly at the ground in front of me. When they exploded, the rockets threw up clouds of debris that knocked the chains off course as they came. Not intending to allow him to use the cloud for cover, I lobbed a few mines into it on delayed arming, and was satisfied to hear them explode a moment later.

A sudden gale of wind dispelled the debris cloud, revealing an uncloaked Shadow Phantom. Now I could see that his Duel Avatar was actually quite masculine... Wearing light armour, the avatar's well-toned body was rather impressive. But what truly got my attention was the small shimmering circular shield formed from hexagonal shapes he now wore on his right hand.

"I didn't know you had a shield!" I blinked in surprise.

"It's not just a shield, but I'll let you find out for yourself what it is," he smirked.

With a flourish of his hand, he sent dark spheres of energy towards me, forcing me to duck aside as I unleashed a hail of bullets from my gatling gun. Shadow Phantom leapt high up into the air and brought his scythe down to bear on me. Once I saw it coming, I backflipped to get out of his attack range just before he landed...

But somehow I still felt a blade whizz by inches from my neck, despite the scythe being well out of range...

"What the..." I began, but he cut me off with another slash... at the wrong range. Immediately sensing something off, I raised my gun to block, and for half a second I saw a long, shimmering scythe blade formed from hexagonal shapes striking the gun, and felt the impact.

"... You have some new tricks up your sleeve, don't you!?" I pointed a finger at him accusingly.

"I did gain a level since our last battle," he replied smugly as he twirled his scythe.

"... I don't know if I should be scared or happy for you," I muttered while dodging another extended scythe swing. "Maybe the former."

Shadow Phantom didn't reply this time, opting to summon those black spheres of energy again. However, instead of sending them directly at me like I had expected, he absorbed them into his scythe, causing the blade to radiate a dark glow as he swung it at me... again, at the wrong range.

I threw myself aside just as a dark wave of energy left the blade and careened into the wall behind me, leaving a deep gouge in it at the impact zone. Yikes...

"I do NOT want to get hit by that," I mused. And that attack hadn't depleted his special bar one bit!

Deciding to bring the fight outside, I leapt through the open window nearby onto the castle grounds, but almost immediately I regretted the decision as Shadow Phantom leapt out after me and actually increased his attack speed, forcing me to focus entirely on blocking with barely any chances to attack.

"Gah!" I gasped as a particularly strong attack knocked me back onto the ground.

When I looked up, Shadow Phantom already had his scythe blade held to my neck.

"And slash, you're dead," he announced as he lowered the scythe.

"Ugh..." I groaned as I climbed to my feet. "Totally my loss..."

"Yup. You forgot to weigh your weakness against your opponent's weapon weakness. My scythe is big and unwieldy, so I have trouble using it in confined spaces. So is your gun, but at least you have the gatling mode for confined spaces where your opponent can't dodge and you can spray the heck out of them," he pointed out.

"So... I should've stayed indoors where you couldn't use your scythe properly?"

"Yep. Out in the open I get a lot more room to swing my scythe around, so I become a lot more dangerous... Especially to a Duel Avatar with a focus on long range combat like you. You get to snipe better out in the open, but it's not worth it when you have a close combat specialist hot on your tail. It's not a problem at long range though."

"I see..." I mused as I looked up at the gauges on top of my HUD. Shadow Phantom had taken less than a quarter damage to his health, while mine was almost entirely depleted... "Whoah, I got my butt kicked bad."

"You did. I'm not going to take as much Burst Points from you though, since I'm a level higher. I assume there are no problems with me winning? I do have a reputation to maintain after all," he chuckled.

"I deserve it," I shook my head in defeat. "Take the points, I have a lot extra anyway."

"Alright then," he nodded.

A short moment later the world around us dissolved into packets of data while losing the blue hue. Abruptly the flow of time around me snapped back to normal and I found myself back in the school cafeteria with the others.

"Yuki-chan, are you absolutely sure you're okay?"

"Huh? Eh, yeah, I'm fine," I quickly dismissed Inoha's concern as I reentered reality. Sometimes returning to normal time was so confusing...

"You've been staring at Kyrius-san for a while now though," she pointed out with a cheeky smile. "Yuki-chan, are you having indecent thoughts about-"

"Uwaaah! It's not like that!" I hurriedly covered Inoha's mouth before she could continue, my face red with embarrassment. "It's not like that at all!"

"If you say so..." she smirked devilishly as I uncovered her mouth.

I blushed bright red, and when I noticed Kyrius looking at me, I felt my cheeks get even hotter and quickly turned away before he could see me blushing... Ahh, this was so embarrassing! "A... Anyway, let's get back to class now!" I walked off briskly without waiting for the others to follow.

* * *

"Uuu... That was embarrassing..." I sighed as I entered the lobby of my apartment building.

Inoha and Phoenicia had pestered me all the while about my relationship with Kyrius... I was loathe to admit it, but I felt like I was really starting to crush on him... I sighed again. Why would I not be crushing on him? He HAD saved me after all... He was kind of like a knight in shining armour back then...

Suddenly, a bump against my lower torso brought me back to reality, but by the time I was fully out of my thoughtful state I was already falling.

*crash*

"Owww..." I moaned as I clutched my head in pain... I had bumped my head against something hard, but something soft had broken my body's fall.

Something wearing a blue blazer and pants...

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going..." I quickly scrambled to my feet to apologize.

The person I had fallen on quickly got back up too, which seemed to be an impressive feat given his wide girth... Oh, wait...

"Oh, it's you, Arita-san," I blinked.

"Sorry, Tsukihara-san! I shouldn't have been standing there like that..." he quickly apologised as well, though I wasn't sure why given it was my fault in the first place...

"Hey, it's my fault anyway... No need to apologize," I smiled down at him - the dark brown-haired kid really was short and chubby for his age... We were in the same year, and yet I was still much taller than him. It was then that I noticed the look in his eyes... "You look troubled... Is something wrong?" I asked cautiously.

"No... it's nothing. See you, Tsukihara-san," he quickly took the next elevator up before I could pry further.

I sighed... was there a need to be that jumpy? We lived in the same apartment block after all... I shook my head and headed towards the elevator. I didn't need to force the issue if he didn't want to talk about it.

* * *

**A/N: Yup, Ruby Sniper vs Shadow Phantom round 2 and in come the canon characters! Though it's just one at this point, and do remember that this chapter is still before canon timeline. Next chapter will see the appearance of more canon characters and the long-awaited meeting with the anime's timeline. Stay tuned!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry for the long delay in posting this chapter, but life is really catching up. Got public exams coming up soon, and lately I've been a bit busy doing 3D modelling work. Like I said before, I can't promise a regular release schedule for my chapters, but I do hope you guys will continue to stick with me. =)**

**Thanks in advance! And enjoy chapter 7!**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

_"Ruby Sniper, are you sure about this?"_

_"Yes... I think about my mentor Lava Blaster being on the battlefield every time I join a territory battle. I'm sorry... but it's just too painful doing it while knowing she can't be there to guide me anymore."_

_"She did get Brain Burst uninstalled... What happened to her afterwards?"_

_"I'm sorry, but... it's just too... painful for me to talk about now..."_

_"I see... I'm sorry this had to happen to you."_

_"... I'm the one who should be sorry, I'm the one leaving the legion after all."_

_"I won't force you, but do remember that you'll always be welcome back."_

_"... Thank you."_

_"Very well. As of now, Ruby Sniper is no longer a member of Prominence! Go, and be well, Yukina."_

* * *

"Mmmph..."

...

I pushed the pillow away from my face before I could suffocate in it and glanced at the clock floating in the corner of my HUD. Ugh, a bit too early... but might as well... A yawn escaped my mouth as I reluctantly shuffled over to my wardrobe to get myself ready for school...

As I left my bedroom, I found my brother sleeping on the couch in the living room. With a small smile I entered his room to get a blanket and returned to drape it across his sleeping form. Geez, he must've fallen asleep while working. He shifted as I did, mumbling something about snow-flavoured cream pies...

...

If he wasn't sleeping, I'd definitely have decked him by now.

"Onii-chan no baka..." I sighed as I made for the kitchen.

Within a few minutes, the mouth-watering aroma of sausages sizzling on the stove wafted through the air as I started setting plates on the dining table, humming a small tune to myself. Just as I started on the coffee, my brother dragged his feet into the room ungainly, sniffing the air.

"Sausages..." he moaned groggily, still half-asleep.

***clang***

"I will have no half-asleep zombies at the dining table!" I cradled the small frying pan menacingly as my brother rubbed the large bump on top of his head, his eyes watering in pain.

"Give me a break, I just woke up..." he pleaded. "After a hard day's work too! And was there really a need to use the steel frying pan?"

***CLANG***

"Yup, there was," I smiled.

"Sometimes you can be a little devil, you know that?" Ryusei was now nursing a second bump on his head gingerly.

I raised the frying pan threateningly.

"Forget what I just said, oh merciful queen."

"Good boy. Now sit down like a good doggie and wait for your breakfast nicely," I grinned.

In response, he sat down on the ground like a dog would, and did a reasonable impersonation of a dog barking and raising its paws to beg for food that finally got me laughing. Ryusei himself joined in laughing for a short moment before reminding me about the sausages and cutting the fun short.

Barely 10 minutes later the both of us were sitting down to a simple breakfast of grilled sausages and scrambled eggs with hot white coffee. The both of us had always been more into coffee than tea after all. I found it gave me the energy to get through the day without falling asleep, but my brother just liked the taste and aroma.

"Itadakimasu!" the both of us said before digging in.

We sat there enjoying the scrumptious breakfast in peace, every now and then glancing over at the clocks on our HUDs or out the window at the scenery... which wasn't really saying much considering we lived in Suginami, a densely-populated district with lots of high-rise buildings...

Sometimes I wondered what it'd be like to live in the country or on an island. But then again there weren't that many Burst Linkers outside Tokyo so I wouldn't be able to replenish my Burst Points as easily... That was definitely a no-no.

"I have gotta say, your cooking is still as delicious as ever, Yuki-chan," my brother smiled.

"You say that every day, onii-chan..." I pointed out unabashedly.

"So I do, but it just means you're getting better at cooking every day!" he replied with a wide grin on his face. "Ah, how my cute little sister has grown..."

I could only really blush at that... But considering how my brother was like, that could mean two things...

"By grown are you referring to my cooking or... snow-flavoured cream puffs?"

"Both!" he paused for a moment as what I had said fully hit him. "... Snow-flavoured cream puffs... How did you know... I said out out loud in my sleep, didn't I?"

"Onii-chan, you pervert," I muttered as I kicked him in the shin under the table.

"That's mean of you..." he gave a pitiful whine while doing his best impression of a puppy dog face.

"If you're going to dream about stuff like that, don't say it out loud in your sleep..." I sighed as I took another bite of sausage.

"It's not like I can control it... Besides, I usually sleep in my room."

"By the way, isn't today Sunday? Why are you in your school uniform if you don't have school on Sunday?"

...

With an embarrassed squeak, I dropped my food and ran back into my room in a hurry, blushing madly... Gah, this was so embarrassing... I had been too sleepy to really pay attention to the day... again.

I quickly changed into a pale yellow V-necked shirt, paired with a white skirt with trailing edges behind it. A brown belt around my waist completed the ensemble along with an excessively large yellow ribbon on my hair and a silver bracelet with two bells on it.

When I emerged from my room, Ryusei was making no attempt to hide his snickering despite my heated glare at him. I just made my way back to the dining table blushing madly and sat down still giving my brother the death glare.

"Just continue eating, don't mind me..." he whistled innocently. "Oh, and you really know how to pick your wardrobe."

"Shut up, onii-chan," I mumbled through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

Suddenly my Neuro Linker beeped, indicating that I had received a message. I quickly navigated to the appropriate menu on the HUD, and brought up the message. Ooooh, it was from Kyrius!

**Something's happened. Meet me at the Suginami Hospital if you're free, ASAP.**

My heart skipped a beat as I read and reread the message. The hospital!? What the heck happened to him for him to be at the hospital!? My face paled as I hurriedly gulped down my last mouthful of scrambled egg and what was left of my morning coffee before frantically scrambling for the door, only to receive another message from Kyrius.

**And you're probably already panicking thinking I landed myself in the hospital, but I can assure you I'm fine. It's an old friend of mine that's in trouble.**

I blushed bright red and tried to calm down my raging heartbeat. Over the last month since Phoenicia and Tsubasa had joined our little group, he had come to understand me quite well. Much to my consternation, I still had yet to be able to read him well - his poker face was simply far too good.

But what kind of old friend would elicit this kind of response from him? He never told me about any significant friends from his past before... So why the sudden call for help? On my way to the elevator, I couldn't help reminiscing about my own old friends. Beside Phoenicia and Tsurugi, there really was only one other person that I could've called a real friend.

Yeah... that girl...

I let myself get lost in my thoughts for a moment, at least until the elevator reached the ground floor. Time to get a move on to the hospital...

* * *

It didn't take me long to locate the blonde, long-haired teen - his skin colour and face stood out among the crowd after all. Today he had a black aviator's jacket over a white tee paired with long dark green pants. He noticed me almost at the same time I did him, and waved at me as I ran across the road towards him.

Even from this distance I could tell that he had a grim expression on his face...

"Kyrius, what's going on?" I asked as I slowed to a halt in front of him.

"Sorry to call you out here this early in the morning... You did arrive faster than I thought you would though," he said as he turned to regard the closed hospital's rotary main door. "I thought I might've woken you up."

"Actually I woke up a little earlier than usual today and thought it was a school day. I was already up when you called, and had just finished changing into these clothes, so it really didn't take me all that long," I replied, gesturing at my clothes.

"That's good, I suppose. Actually an old friend of mine was involved in a car accident just yesterday, and she was admitted to the hospital," he scratched his chin nervously, apparently debating how to break it out to me.

"How did she get in an accident? I thought auto-drive technology was supposed to prevent that!" I exclaimed.

"Apparently the yahoo who did it disabled the system," he grunted with clear distaste dripping from his tongue. "Drove the car onto the sidewalk to try and ram her to death. Very nearly succeeded too - she's seriously injured."

"Ouch... So she's in the emergency ward now?"

"Probably. Anyway, I wouldn't call you out here if she was just a nobody. She's actually a Burst Linker, and a very famous one at that. Or infamous, depending on how you look at it..." he paused in thought for a moment.

"Who's she then?" I blinked in surprise.

"The former leader of the Black Legion, Nega Nebulous. The Black King, Black Lotus... and my former legion master."

...

"... Yuki? Hello?"

...

"I think you broke her."

The sudden appearance of a second person snapped me out of my stupor and made me backpedal until I almost fell down. Thankfully Kyrius caught my hand before I could fall, and pulled me back up. I heaved a sigh of relief... and then the impact of what Kyrius had said hit me like a speeding train.

"THE BLACK KING!? ACCEL WORLD'S BIGGEST TRAITOR, THE BLACK KING!?" I shrieked. "FORMER LEGION MASTER!?"

"Not really that surprising a reaction, she doesn't have the best reputation around..." Kyrius sighed balefully as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yes, I was a member of Nega Nebulous before it disbanded after Black Lotus went into hiding. I personally knew her in real life, but she somehow managed to completely drop off the grid so even I couldn't find her. But now... I'd still recognize her anywhere though - that car crash was in the news this morning."

"So are we here just to visit her...?" I asked apprehensively. To be honest, I was a little scared to meet Black Lotus in person... Her reputation wasn't the best after all...

"Don't worry about it, Yuki. She's not really a bad person," Kyrius chuckled jovially before his expression turned serious once more. "And no, we are not just here to visit her. Call me paranoid, but I don't know if that accident was committed just to take the Black King out of Accel World's picture or not... Honestly speaking, I'm worried for her safety."

... What was this aching feeling in my heart? I clutched a hand to my chest as I said, "So you're saying that... whoever perpetrated the incident may be back for round 2? But wouldn't she dominate any attacker in the Accelerated World?"

"Not if she's unconscious," Kyrius shook his head sadly. "I've actually challenged a few sleeping people to duels before. Their Duel Avatars just collapse right after Accelerating. Easy kills."

"That's..."

"Cruel, but it still happens anyway," he nodded. "Usually unintentionally though."

"But wasn't the guy caught and hauled off to jail already?" I pointed out.

"We don't know if he had accomplices or not. Come on, Yuki. We need to get into the hospital first and connect to their network before anyone else does. I'll accelerate and challenge her to a duel so I can try and rouse her. That way she'll at least be able to fend off any attackers that come afterwards."

"... What if you can't wake her up?" I asked hesitantly.

"I can't give up without trying first," he shook his head. "If I do fail, I want you to be ready to challenge her. Keep the cycle up until she wakes up and buy as much time as possible. Sanno, you're up after Yuki."

... Sanno? I turned around slowly, expecting to see a certain pervert standing there. I wasn't disappointed - Erohara Sanno was standing there in a simple red shirt and brown cargo pants. A black beanie covered his hair from view, and he flashed me a small smile as he stepped forward.

... I had been a little to absorbed in my conversation with Kyrius about Black Lotus to notice him earlier...

"I got it, but why after our precious demure little snowflower?" he asked.

"I figured that if... a guy can't wake her up, a girl might be able to," he blushed a little, but continued talking, unfazed, "It's better to have a contingency plan."

"I suppose..." Sanno nodded and shot a quick glance at something on his Neuro Linker's HUD. "Kyrius, visiting hours are about to start."

We hurried into the hospital's rotary main door, just behind a tall, brown-haired teenaged boy wearing a green jacket and long beige pants. As the door spun around to admit us on the other side, a figure hidden in the shadows of the corridor opposite the entrance leapt off a bench there and waved in our direction. I couldn't really get a good look due to the bad lighting, but I didn't know anyone else with that short, rotund figure...

"Arita...-san?" I blinked in surprise. What was he doing here?

"Come on, Yuki..." Kyrius took my hand gently and led me away to a more out-of-the-way area. As he did, I felt my cheeks heat up... Kyrius was... holding my hand...

"Burst Link!"

Wait... that wasn't Kyrius's voice! I noticed it too late as the world around me dissolved into streams of digital data... Ugh! I found myself appearing in the Accelerated World once more, right where the hotel lobby would've been. The walls here were the alien, yellow, overgrown ones of the Purgatory stage...

And standing before me was a tall cyan-coloured Duel Avatar in heavy knight-like armour with a large pile bunker on his left arm.

"Dammit, we were too late!"

I heard a fist slam into a wall beside me. It turned out to be Kyrius's black-cloaked watcher avatar... while standing beside him was a muscular, somewhat robotic avatar with light armour and a thin visor substituting for its eyes. I was all too familiar with Sanno's watcher avatar now...

"Wait..." I blinked as I realized something upon looking at my HUD. I didn't see Black Lotus there... but rather Cyan Pile and Silver Crow! "Someone else beat us to it!"

"Let's get out of here first. It'd be bad to get caught in the line of fire," Sanno's watcher avatar tapped us on our shoulders to get our attention.

Kyrius reluctantly retreated outside, with me following closely behind. Why did we accelerate anyway? I was pretty sure I wasn't watching any of the two combatants there...

"Why did we accelerate to watch this battle?" I asked, completely confused.

"I think one of the combatants just invited everyone in the area to watch. People usually don't do that too often... it costs them extra Burst Points to do it. He must've been really confident of winning against Black Lotus, whichever it is," Sanno suggested. Kyrius was still a little too devastated to talk...

... I felt my heart throb.

We quickly relocated to the rooftop of the Purgatory hospital, where a bunch of other watchers were gathered, watching the battle unfold. I quickly brought up the spectating window on my HUD...

Just in time to see a slender, silver-coloured Duel Avatar get an arm taken off by Cyan Pile's pile bunker. Ah, I had fought him before - I remembered that weapon! Silver Crow quickly lost balance and collapsed to the ground, but he quickly recovered and was soon back on his feet, running away.

"A level 4 against a level 1? He's utterly reckless!" I groaned. There was no way a weak-looking level 1 like Silver Crow was going to win against the more experienced, level 4 Cyan Pile!

"I agree. That silver Duel Avatar looks really frail and weak..." Sanno nodded.

Soon Silver Crow found an elevator, and he managed to get into it just before Cyan Pile's pile bunker could connect another hit. I had to wonder though - which one was the real enemy? Who was it that was after Black Lotus? Silver Crow or Cyan Pile? Suddenly I found a finger tapping my shoulder. It turned out to be Kyrius when I turned around to check.

"We don't have another choice," he said grimly. "If we're going to save Black Lotus, we'll need to find her before any of the two combatants do. Come on!"

* * *

It took a while, but eventually we managed to find the ward Black Lotus was in. Sanno stayed behind to observe the fight and tip us off if anything happened, so it was just Kyrius and I who entered the ward of the sleeping Black King.

For a moment I just stood stock still as I stared at the Black King's resting bed, if one could call it that. Transfixed by the sheer beauty of the avatar resting there, all I could do was gaze at her slender form - her pale creamy skin stood out against the black, laced clothing she wore. Her resplendent long black hair blended well with her similarly dark clothes, giving her an air of mystique and sophistication that I was sure I couldn't replicate.

Bluntly put, I was entranced by the Black King's looks.

"Black Lotus, I know you're listening somewhere there..." Kyrius began softly. "It's me, Shadow Phantom. Your former legion member."

My heart began to ache dully as I watched the scene unfold. Lately this had been happening whenever I saw him interacting with any of the girls in our group other than me casually... Even Phoenicia wasn't spared. I knew I really was starting to fall for Kyrius, but I didn't know if I could accept that myself just yet. My heart was screaming at me to simply launch myself at him and declare my affections, but my logical side was telling me that he could find a better girl than me in the future...

Ugh, this was a real conundrum...

"Yuki, are you there?" Kyrius's voice broke me out of my contemplative state, accompanied by a hand touching mine...

...

Kyrius's hand...

...

"Uwaaah!" I jumped, startled at the casual gesture of intimacy...

Kyrius stared at me with his head cocked to one side and a curious expression on his face... that only succeeded in further intensifying my fierce blush. I quickly looked away lest he catch it and tried to get my raging emotions under control without looking into his enchanting eyes...

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"We... Well... I'm a little nervous... This is... the Black King after all..." I quickly lied to cover up my embarrassment. I couldn't let him find out my feelings! Not just yet...

"Well, that's understandable... But please, help me out here. We need to finish before-" Kyrius was cut off mid-sentence by a loud crumbling sound coming from above.

When we looked up, we saw a slender silver avatar being sent flying to the ground under the force of an impossibly long pile bunker. Right towards us.

Needless to say, the both of us quickly dodged out of the way and Kyrius pulled me to hide behind a nearby pillar before Silver Crow hit the ground... hard. I couldn't help wincing as the pile bunker retracted and the dust kicked up from the impact cleared, showing that the poor guy had large gaping holes in his armour as well as a missing right foot and left arm...

"I knew it, he got his butt kicked," Kyrius groaned as he peered out from the cover of the alien pillar.

"Kyrius... Um..." I blushed, noting a warm weight lying across my chest...

In his haste to get me to cover, Kyrius hadn't... exactly been paying attention to where he had been dragging me by. So now his arm was resting on my chest...

"... Oops."

He quickly removed his hand after that. If he was blushing, I couldn't tell through his mask... Not that I had the courage to look into his face anyway, given how furiously I was blushing at the moment... Ugh... Why did something like this have to happen? At this time to boot? Why couldn't it happen in a more romantic setting...?

...

_Now's not the time for this, Yukina!_

I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts... just in time to see the end of Silver Crow's monologue. Kyrius was focusing back on him, and had apparently listened to it completely because he had a hand cupped to his ear. I couldn't see his expression... really, that mask was starting to get a bit annoying.

Suddenly Silver Crow started jerking around roughly as his back started to emit pulses of energy. I watched with rapt fascination as he collapsed beside Black Lotus, only for panels on his back to open up to yield hexagonal pieces of metal that floated out and gathered on his back to form...

Wings.

Wait, wings!? I had never heard of an ability like that! Granted, there were Burst Linkers who could jump extremely high... but wings? True flight!?

My thought process was interrupted by a shockwave that almost knocked me off my feet spreading out when Silver Crow... took off...

...

"Uh. Kyrius. Am I dreaming?"

"You're not."

"Did I just see a Burst Linker... flying?"

"Yes, you just saw a Burst Linker flying."

"With wings?"

"With wings."

"... I must be dreaming. Pinch me."

... Ouch! That hurt!

"THAT WAS REAL!? A BURST LINKER THAT CAN ACTUALLY FLY!?" I gasped in shock.

"This is my first time seeing it too! I mean... I know someone who has limited flight capability... But this guy... He doesn't seem to have a thrust limit..."

Indeed, when I looked up at the HUD showing the health of both players, there wasn't anything there to indicate a limit to his flying ability... Even his special gauge wasn't decreasing at all! So he could practically go on flying forever? That wasn't quite fair...

"That's not really fair to close-ranged characters..." I mumbled.

"It isn't," Kyrius agreed. "I don't envy any blue-coloured Duel Avatars out there now."

"I wonder if I should invest in anti-air missiles..." I mused thoughtfully while stealing a glance at the gaping hole in the ceiling where Silver Crow had fallen in earlier.

"Not worth it. Besides, you have enough long-range firepower that you probably wouldn't have as much trouble shooting him out of the sky if you fight him," Kyrius quickly shot down the idea.

"Oh." Honestly, sometimes Kyrius made me feel like I was an idiot.

"Even in an injured state like that, he still didn't give up... Nothing less than I expected."

I froze as the low, gentle voice rang out clearly through the confines of the chamber. Even Kyrius had frozen too... clearly he recognised the owner of the voice. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was anyway. There was only one other person in the room right now...

"I see you're still doing well, Shadow Phantom," Black Lotus approached us slowly, walking in a very graceful manner as her avatar's butterfly wings gently flapped in a non-existent breeze...

I swallowed audibly, abruptly remembering that she was one of the most powerful Burst Linkers in existence at the moment...

"Thank you for your concern, my King," Kyrius actually bowed respectfully... I felt a twinge of jealousy in my heart, but I didn't let it affect my demeanour as I inclined my head slightly in her direction.

"I heard everything he said. Truly an exceptional one, don't you agree?" I noted that Black Lotus had an almost regal tone of speech - low, but definitely with an underlying sense of authority that practically demanded respect. I couldn't help but be a little awed...

"Indeed," Kyrius relaxed slightly, but he still looked concerned. "Are you alright now, Black Lotus?"

"I am. At ease, Shadow Phantom. Who is this by the way?" the Black King turned to regard me with a soft, but guarded expression. I flinched slightly, but held my ground, determined not to embarrass myself in front of Kyrius.

"A good friend of mine. She's Ruby Sniper in the Accelerated World," he paused and shot a glance my way before continuing, "She's a long-range specialist."

"I see. What legion is she in?" the regal-looking King nodded.

Kyrius had never actually asked me that question before, probably because it never really mattered to him. So now even he was looking at me expectantly... I gulped as I forced myself to look at the Black King and meet her eyes evenly. It was probably better for me to answer truthfully...

"I'm... not in any legion at the moment. Previously I was with Prominence, but... I left. After my... my mentor lost Brain Burst," I shifted uncomfortably. I thought I had managed to put that aside by now... but clearly it wasn't so.

"I'm sorry to hear about that, Ruby Sniper," Black Lotus had a pained look in her eyes as she patted my shoulder gently. Her sudden, soft touch surprised me a little, and I lowered my head slightly so she wouldn't see the look on my face.

"I'm glad to have met you again, Shadow Phantom, and I really would love to chat some more but I really must be going. It seems my protege is now doing rather well in his duel..." she trailed off as she cast a glance at the gauges at the top of her HUD.

I checked my HUD too, and blinked slowly as I realized that the two health bars were now equal. Wow, Silver Crow managed to turn the tables in this short amount of time just after gaining his wings!? Clearly there was more to him than I initially thought...

"Perhaps tomorrow at 2 pm? We'll meet in the Unlimited Field at this hospital," Black Lotus said after a moment's thought. "I'd like you to come as well, Ruby Sniper."

"Eh? Me too?" I blinked in surprise. Why did she want me to come too? I gave Kyrius a worried glance, but he simply nodded. "Um... I don't mind, but why?"

"Right now, all I ask is that you come. I'd simply like to talk to you about certain things," was her reply.

"Okay..." I blinked again.

"Then I shall see you tomorrow, Shadow Phantom, Ruby Sniper."

With that, the enigmatic Black King left the room, leaving Kyrius and I behind to stare after her. I was still a bit dazed to have the chance to actually talk with the Black King... even if she was the Accelerated World's biggest traitor. So far she actually didn't seem all that scary...

"Want to go back up to the roof?" Kyrius asked, the elation at having met his legion master again clear in his tone. "I get the feeling something interesting is going to happen back up there."

"How could you not? A Duel Avatar just flew after all," I pointed out. "We're missing out on all the fun down here."

* * *

"What took you so long?" Sanno asked impatiently as we made our way back towards him.

It looked like the fight was over now, and we had made it back just in time to see Silver Crow embracing Black Lotus... Or was it the other way around? It wasn't quite clear from the angle I was looking from, but I highly doubted that the silver Duel Avatar could hug anyone with an arm missing.

"Well... she only woke up after Silver Crow fell in there and talked to her," Kyrius scratched his head. "Didn't exactly have much of a choice there."

"For a moment I thought you two were having some... _quality_ time together," Sanno snickered mischievously...

...

"It's... It's not like that!" I hurriedly denied it, though I didn't make a very convincing case with my cheeks this red... Ugh, luckily Kyrius was behind me so he couldn't see it...

"Right..." Sanno arched an eyebrow disbelievingly.

I couldn't do much but wither under his accusing stare... Why did I have to opt for a watching avatar with a human face to show my emotions on...? Maybe it was about time to redesign it. I didn't really like how Kyrius could read my emotions all the time just from looking at my expression...

"Not now, Sanno," luckily Kyrius didn't seem to be listening as he stared in the direction of his legion master.

Sanno was just about to retort when he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a black beam that lanced out from where Silver Crow and Black Lotus were. The beam strafed rapidly across the roof, destroying it and kicking up large clouds of dust that obscured my sight...

"What just happened?" I blinked in shock.

"Just watch," Kyrius chuckled, unfazed by the event. "She likes her grand appearances."

It took a few seconds for the smoke to clear, revealing a tall, black Duel Avatar. Her slender frame clearly highlighted her more feminine appearance, with a wide purple visor covering her face and two antennae protruding from the sides of her helmet, acting like ears. Her arms and legs were blades that glinted menacingly even in the limited sunlight of the Purgatory stage, seemingly projecting a fear-inducing aura...

"That's... that can't be!"

"Isn't that the Black King!?"

"She's Accel World's biggest traitor! What is she doing here!?"

The cries of outrage rang through the air, with an undertone of fear punctuating her very presence. It was clear that everyone was... scared of her. I glanced at Kyrius's face, but as usual his mask was blocking all my attempts to glean his emotions from his expression. I let out a disappointed sigh and turned back to look at the Black King.

"I used to be in Nega Nebulous too, actually," Sanno said.

"Really? I didn't know that."

"I wasn't all that high-leveled at the time. Level 1 is hardly high enough to join territory battles, so I didn't manage to spend much time with my fellow legionmates before Nega Nebulous disbanded. After the Black King went missing."

As I watched, Black Lotus... hovered towards Silver Crow, who rose to his feet to meet her. After a short conversation that I couldn't pick up, the silver Burst Linker picked her up and spread his wings to soar into the air.

"Whoa, he's really flying..." I looked up at him incredulously.

"You missed the good part of the fight though. Apparently they decided to end it with a draw," Sanno shook his head.

"Huh," I mumbled absent-mindedly as I kept staring up into the sky at the monochromatic pair currently floating high in the air.

"Hear me, Burst Linkers of the legions of the six kings!" Black Lotus brandished a sword arm as she continued, "I am Black Lotus! The king who has rebelled against your kings' rule! Along with my legion, Nega Nebulous, we will remove our shackles and destroy this sham of a truce!"

"I suppose having a flying avatar carry you into the air while delivering a speech like that is one hell of a way to command attention," Sanno remarked.

"Take up your swords! Raise your torches high!" Black Lotus's voice clearly resonated across the battlefield passionately. One could easily tell that she was completely serious about it. "The time to fight has come!"

Silence reigned on the battlefield for what seemed to last an eternity. After that, it was utter chaos as panicked Burst Linkers began to scramble around in fear while the ones that had retained logical thought contacted their legion headquarters. I could barely make out any individual voices over the din, and Kyrius had to pull me out of the way of the rampaging crowd when things began to get out of hand.

"Come on, Yuki! Burst Out!" Kyrius shouted.

"Burst... Burst Out!" I hurriedly followed suit after another parting glance at Black Lotus.

* * *

"That was... chaotic..." I sighed as I entered the cafe.

The three of us, Kyrius, Sanno and I had left the hospital to go into town for a quick drink. Apparently Kyrius had an aunt that owned a cafe close to the hospital, so we had decided to go there. Kyrius actually held out a chair for me as I made my way towards the table, which I took while blushing...

"Th... Thanks, Kyrius..." I whispered shyly as I looked down in an attempt to hide my blush.

"You're welcome," he said as he took the seat beside me.

I didn't look up for a while as my cheeks heated up even more...

"Oh crap!" Sanno suddenly stood up in a hurry as he stared at something on his Neuro Linker's HUD. "I told some of my friends that I'd go for karaoke with them today! Sorry Kyrius, I have to go now."

Before we could so much as say a quick goodbye, Sanno had gotten out of his seat and rushed out of the cafe, leaving just Kyrius and I behind staring after him incredulously. Well... maybe it was a good thing we hadn't ordered anything yet. I let my thoughts wander for a bit as I took in the scenery.

This was actually a pretty nice spot for a cafe, right beside a park full of greenery and a small lake. As I took a deep breath of fresh air, an indiscernible sweet smell pervaded my sense of smell. Probably the flowers planted all around the place. The sun wasn't that high up in the sky yet, and the city was beginning to wake up from its slumber. Some people were jogging around...

But I took particular notice of the fact that most of them were paired up with a member of the opposite sex. It was the same scenario for the other customers in the cafe now. They were all couples... That got my brain working overtime for a moment. I had heard about a particular park in the city that was a popular hangout for couples...

Wait a second... this park was...

"I think we need to talk," he said as he withdrew a black cable from a pocket... A Direct Link cable!

"Wa... Wait, I... I don't think I'm... ready yet..." I stammered profusely as he held out one end of the cable. All the while I felt my cheeks steadily getting hotter and my heartbeat increasing...

"Ready for what?" he tilted his head aside in confusion.

"Ummm..." ... I couldn't say... I just fidgeted nervously while trying to avert my eyes... I wasn't mentally prepared to accept a confession just yet!

"I mean... if you consider me a close friend, then there's no problem with Direct Linking, right? You do it with Phoenicia all the time."

"That's completely different!" I protested. "She's a... She's a girl! My best friend! And you're a guy!"

"I thought you had to Direct Link with your brother to use his enhanced replay system?"

"He's family!" I felt like I was just digging a bigger hole for myself now... Waaah, why did Kyrius have to do it in a place like this!?

"Well... I don't want to be overheard while saying this..." he gave the link cable a baleful look.

"Well... If... If you insist..." I hesitantly accepted the end of the cable he offered he and affixed it to the port on my Neuro Linker. All the while I was as red as a beetroot...

Kyrius plugged his end of the cable into his Neuro Linker before a popup window appeared on my HUD informing me that I was directly linked to someone. My embarrassment was growing by the second... It didn't help that some of the other couples here had noticed and were commenting on how bold we were to do it in public...

_"You can hear me, right?" _Kyrius said over the link, his lips unmoving in real life.

_"Ye... Yeah..."_ I blushed.

_"Sorry for doing this so abruptly..." _he began.

Already my heartbeat was skyrocketing... I felt like it could burst out of my chest at any moment...

_"The truth is..."_

_No... Not here! Don't confess to me here! I'm not ready yet!_

_"I..."_

_Give me time to prepare myself emotionally!_

_"-want..."_

_Okay, calm down, Yukina! Count from 5 to 1! 5, 2, 1, 3..._

_..._

_"-us to..."_

_Nooooo! I can't calm myself down like this!_

"Here's your drink!"

The arrival of the waitress earned me a temporary reprieve from my embarrassing situation... At least until I remembered that neither of us had actually ordered anything yet. That and the drink was a clear and pink concoction in a large wine glass, topped off with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, an assortment of sliced fruits...

... And most outrageous of all, an elaborate red straw that split into two to form the outline of a heart with two ends to sip from...

...

"We didn't order this, aunty..." Kyrius protested as he looked up at who appeared to be his aunt - a relatively dark-skinned and plump woman wearing her blonde hair in a bun.

"Nonsense! You young 'uns look so cuuute t'gether as a couple!" she laughed merrily in a heavy Kansai accent. "Tis' on the house, my dear nephew! Your girlfr'nd d'serves as much!"

... Girlfriend. I alternated between staring at the drink and at Kyrius, all the while with my cheeks reddening up to the same shade as the drink. This was simply to much for me to take... Sharing a drink with Kyrius... There was absolutely no way I could...

... Share a drink with Kyrius... Ahahaha... Haha...

My brain completely shut down at that point as my eyes rolled back up in my head and my vision went pitch black... I only barely managed to stay conscious for just a short while longer...

"Aunty... We're not... Yuki!? What happened!?"

* * *

**A/N: Cliffhanger! If you laughed, please review. =P**

**For the next chapter, I'll be introducing another OC that will feature heavily in the future. But that's all I'll share for now. Stay tuned!**


	8. Chapter 7: Omake

**A/N: Yay, this story has now reached 1k views! To celebrate, here's a quick omake!**

* * *

**Chapter 7.5 Omake**

"Gather around, we'll be starting this swimming lesson soon!"

It felt like ages since I had my last swimming lesson in middle school... This would be my first one in high school, and it would also be my first time wearing this new school swimsuit. I gulped nervously and adjusted it as I stepped out of the girls' changing room. It felt a little tight around the chest...

Kyrius was already standing there in black thigh-length swimming trunks... and nothing else... I couldn't help eyeballing his well-toned, athletic body. Already the chatter was picking up among the girls - none of us had ever seen the guys dressed like this before after all!

"He... Hey... Kyrius... How... How do I... I look?" I stammered as I approached him, folding my arms around my chest. My cheeks were probably hot enough to fry an egg...

Phoenicia and Inoha snickered behind me. Aida just stared at me with his jaw wide open.

"As elegant as ever," the class representative replied unabashedly with a sweet smile on his face.

...

"Yuki?"

...

"I think you broke her, Kyrius."

"Huh? I didn't say anything... Are you alright, Yuki?"

Suddenly I felt a warm hand against my forehead that jerked me out of my stupor. I found myself staring into Kyrius's entrancing crimson red eyes... while he clapped a hand to my forehead...

"Well, you certainly don't have a fever..." he mused aloud.

...

I felt my blush creep down to my neck even as I squeaked, "Uwaaah!" and roughly jerked backwards...

My right foot didn't encounter the resistance I had expected. Instead it found the very edge of the pool, and I flailed wildly as I stumbled and began to fall backwards right towards the water...

"Yuki!" Kyrius immediately reacted and grabbed my hand before I fell. Unfortunately he didn't have enough leverage or stability, and he lost his balance just like I did, only to be dragged off his feet.

A cold splash greeted me as I fell into the pool.

I began panicking almost instantly - I hadn't had the time to take a breath of air before falling in so I was now inhaling water... But a pair of strong arms closed around me and pulled me up to the surface. I spluttered as I broke the surface of the water and coughed out some water...

That was not fun...

"Yuki! Are you okay?" Kyrius's voice sounded distant, but at least I knew I was still okay...

"I... I'm fine..." I gasped as I tipped water out of my ears.

"Whew..." he breathed... then paused abruptly.

It was right then that I felt warm weights on my chest. A squeeze. I let out a squeak in surprise as the squeeze came again.

...

"Uh, ooops?" Kyrius blanched in horror.

"Kyrius..." I blushed violently... "Can... can you please... let go of my breasts...?"

Kyrius recoiled as if stung by a bee and quickly released me from his hold. We were quickly joined in the pool by our other friends - Phoenicia and Inoha quickly dragged me aside to check for injuries, and were relieved to find none. However, by the devious looks on their faces I knew that wasn't the only reason...

"We saw the whole thing, Yuki-chan..." Inoha began.

"Did you enjoy it?" Phoenicia added with a glint in her eyes.

"You... You two! Stop that!" I squeaked, thoroughly embarrassed... "Uuuuu..."


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: It's been a while! Sorry, but I've been rather busy with clan wars in World of Tanks, aside from some other real life stuff. Public exams in a month! D=**

**So anyway, I give you Chapter 8, introducing some new OCs... and the first Unlimited Burst in this fanfic.**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

I couldn't help sighing balefully as I shot a glance at the clock hovering in the corner of my HUD. It was almost time for the meeting with Black Lotus, and I was still feeling a little uneasy about the while thing. That... and I was still recovering from my little... fiasco yesterday with Kyrius.

As it turned out, he hadn't been about to confess to me, but rather he had wanted to discuss Black Lotus's return with me. The effects of her return would be pretty drastic, or so he had said. I couldn't quite remember it clearly. Truth be told, I was too depressed to pay full attention.

"He... doesn't consider me his girlfriend..." I sniffed as I hugged my legs closer on my bed.

When I woke up from that fainting spell yesterday, that oblivious idiot Kyrius had asked me if the heat was getting to me. I couldn't reply in anything else but the affirmative as I was still too flustered to think straight... and there was absolutely no way I could flat out tell him I liked him! In the end, Kyrius's aunt had insisted on us sharing the drink even after Kyrius had denied our relationship a second time.

I had fainted again halfway through from thinking too much about it being an indirect kiss...

Ugh! I shook my head and looked up from my feet... right at the large mirror in the corner of my room. I barely spared it a glance in my frustration until I noticed that I was wearing an utterly silly expression on my face, which was as red as the heart-shaped pillow lying at the foot of my bed.

... I promptly smacked myself in the face with the pillow to get the look off my face. This was so embarrassing and frustrating! I couldn't help but think back to some of our more recent sparring matches. I still kept losing, but at least our matches were getting closer and closer.

However there had been more than one occasion on which I hesitated during an attack and gave him an opening to counterattack. I just... couldn't bring myself to intentionally hurt Kyrius. Not too much at any rate. No matter what I did to try and curb it, it was always the same outcome.

"Kyrius no baka..." I muttered as I buried my face in the pillow.

**A/N: Japanese just seemed more appropriate for this.**

A buzzing sound alerted me to the fact that the time Black Lotus had set was fast approaching, so I began composing a message to send to Kyrius.

**Hey Kyrius! We'd better get ready to meet up-**

I stared blankly at the half-composed message for a moment. It made it sound like we were going on a date...

**Kyrius, will you hurry up and get ready already? It's not like I want to wait for you or anything!**

... I quickly cleared the message after a few moments of wondering why I was going all tsundere on him.

**Kyrius... I'm getting lonely waiting for you...**

...

"I seriously need a break," I declared out loud as I deleted the draft again.

Just as the countdown to the meeting reached 1 minute and 45 seconds, a buzzing sound alerted me to a new message I had just received. It came so suddenly and surprised me that I squeaked and fell over back onto my bed. Jeez, I was getting a little too jumpy these days...

... Especially when brooding over Kyrius...

I let a resigned sigh escape my lips as I brought up the message. Unsurprisingly it was from Kyrius... but I still felt my heart kick into gear. I gulped audibly and forced myself to remain calm as I read it.

**Hello Yuki, are you ready? Let's Accelerate exactly one second earlier. Don't want to keep Black Lotus waiting after all.**

One second earlier... 1 second of real time for 1000 Accelerated seconds... That was roughly 17 minutes. Plenty of time to get to the meeting spot. I let out another sigh. What could we do in 17 minutes alone with each other? To be honest, I was starting to feel rather apprehensive. It would be with my crush after all...

Seconds passed like hours as I waited patiently for the appointed time. At the half a minute mark, I began to inhale deeply and try to run through some possible scenarios that could happen while meeting with Shadow Phantom and Black Lotus. Eventually I gave up on it after Kyrius's face started flitting through my thoughts.

"Might as well get it over with..." I sighed as the countdown reached 10 seconds. 9 seconds later I began, "Unlimited Burst."

* * *

I flexed a slender, gloved right hand as I materialised in the Accelerated World... the true one on a rocky plateau in a landscape with searing heat. The Desert Wasteland map I was on at the moment was a dangerous map plagued with sandstorms and sinkholes, so I knew I needed to move fast to get to the meeting point.

This was only my third time in the Unlimited Field, as my mentor Lava Blaster had lost Brain Burst after my second trip in here. After she had effectively... died, I had lost my motivation so I hadn't returned. At least until now. To me, it was still so impressive how Brain Burst could generate a field without limits like this.

That raised the question of where the server for it was... What kind of server built so secretly that Brain Burst was never uncovered before its release could handle such complex terrain generation? That was probably one of the program's greatest mysteries. But I wasn't really the kind of person who could... no, I didn't have the skills do anything about it.

Oh well, no need to ponder it at the moment. I gave the plateau behind me a long look before bringing up a map of Suginami district on my interface. A quick tap on the hospital and my target locator arrow appeared to point towards it. I took off at a run, grumbling about the lack of high positions to swing from using my grappling hooks.

Along the way I had to dodge an Enemy that resembled a dragon with winged front legs and a long tail. It was brown-coloured and also had dangerous-looking claws and teeth. When I saw it, it was fighting a group of Burst Linkers that had lured it so that it ended up charging into a wall so its teeth got stuck in it.

It looked distinctively familiar, but I couldn't quite place where it had come from... Oh well. At least it was too busy to go after me.

It actually didn't take me too long to get to the hospital after the Enemy encounter. Along the way there had been tall stone arches that I could swing from to get there faster, though it had taken a shot from my gun once or twice, using the recoil to alter my course to prevent myself from crashing into walls.

The hospital was currently what resembled an old, ruined block of buildings weathered from ages of raging desert winds. Standing on top of one of them was a very familiar black-cloaked figure. Already my heart was going into overdrive, but I quickly forced it into submission as I fired a grappling hook at the roof to drag myself up to meet with Shadow Phantom.

"Hey there, Yuki," he greeted me as I climbed onto the roof.

"H... Hi, Kyrius," I stammered as my composure slipped away at the sound of his voice. Times like these I was really glad Duel Avatars didn't show emotions...

"Black Lotus should be here soon," he glanced up at his HUD before turning back to me. "Have you given any thought to what I asked you yesterday?"

...

"We... Well... I still don't really know... I quit my last legion because my mentor lost Brain Burst..."

"That won't happen this time around, Yuki," Kyrius declared.

"I suppose..." I sighed. "Kyrius, have you ever regretted joining Nega Nebulous?"

"Nope. Back when it was still a complete legion, we were one tightly-banded group. Black Lotus may have betrayed the other Kings, but she is fair and faithful to those who she trusts. The other legion members and I had a lot of fun under her reign."

I couldn't help letting a giggle escape my lips, but went back into serious mode quickly. "Maybe... Kyrius. Maybe I'll join..."

_... If only just to be close to you._

"Well then, I'll be looking forward to working with you, Yuki," Kyrius patted my head gently.

I blinked owlishly at the sudden motion, and just managed to resist the urge to cuddle into his chest even as my cheeks began to heat up.

"Don't... Don't tease me..." I quickly looked away shyly.

"Huh?" the black Duel Avatar managed to get out before a whooshing sound alerted us to the arrival of the third member of the meeting group.

Black Lotus hovered over in our direction, stopping in front of the two of us gracefully. Her glossy black armour shimmered in the light of the digital sun, further reinforcing the regal, dignified presence she seemed to project all around her. To be honest, I felt a little overwhelmed by her, but then again she was a King...

"I see the both of you made it. I assume this is Ruby Sniper, Shadow Phantom?" she turned to look at me, making me shiver a little under her firm gaze.

"Yes, Black Lotus."

"Ni... Nice to me... meet you," I stammered nervously.

"I believe Shadow Phantom has told you everything about me already. So... What do you think?" she asked.

I hesitated for a moment and glanced at Kyrius before turning back towards Black Lotus and replying, "Black Lotus... I left my old legion for a reason. But now I do believe it's time for me to move on and meet new friends. I heard from... Kyrius about your actions in the past, but I'm willing to wait to see if I can understand your thinking."

"So... do you accept?"

"I do, Black Lotus. I'll join Nega Nebulous," I spoke firmly. At the very least, I wanted to be close to Kyrius...

"Very well, Ruby Sniper," the Black King nodded.

A quick legion invitation and two presses of a button later, I received a message saying that I was now officially a member of the Black Legion. Kyrius regarded me with a look that I assumed meant he was happy. I returned with a light giggle as I checked my own character stats to see the change in status reflected there.

"I'd like to formally welcome you into Nega Nebulous, Ruby Sniper. I'd do it with a handshake, but..." she trailed off as she eyed her sword hands. I got the message - she didn't have any hands to do it with.

"Oh no, it's fine," I waved it off. "We could do it in real life the next time we meet."

"I suppose so. Shadow Phantom, how has Nega Nebulous been doing in my absence?"

"Yes, Black Lotus. Most of the old members have already left. As far as I'm aware, Arctic Dragoon and I are the only two other people in the legion now. And also Ruby Sniper."

"My protege, Silver Crow, should be in the list by now. Cyan Pile will join at a later date once he leaves the Blue Legion," Black Lotus added.

Arctic Dragoon was Sanno's character. So far I hadn't had the chance to see him in battle, so hopefully I'd get the chance later today. He did say that he'd be going to the shopping district later to do some duelling so he could replenish his Burst Points. According to him, he had been spending too much time dodging flying objects... What flying objects and why, I didn't think I wanted to know.

"Ruby Sniper, I'd like to ask you a favour. Shadow Phantom, you too," Black Lotus asked suddenly.

"Huh?" both Kyrius and I said simultaneously. It made me blush a bit.

"I haven't gotten into a real duel in a very long while, so I'd like to ask for a practice duel. Both of you against me."

"Are... are you sure, Black Lotus?" I gaped. There was no way I could win against a level 9 King! Even with Kyrius helping!

"I'd also like to evaluate your skill for when we take part in territory battles in the future. That way I know where to assign you in a fight," she added.

"I guess you do need to know what I can do..." I hesitated momentarily before continuing, "But the both of us at once?"

"Why not?" Black Lotus shrugged. "I'm sure Shadow Phantom has some new tricks up his sleeve."

"I do. But... we don't want to accidentally kill you, Black Lotus," even Kyrius was hesitating.

"Oh, don't worry about me," she chuckled. "Worry more about yourselves instead."

"If you say so..." I walked over to stand beside Kyrius while Black Lotus hovered away to stand a good distance away.

There was a moment's respite as each one of us drew our weapons - Black Lotus's sword hands swapped out for larger blades while Shadow Phantom reached back over his shoulder to retrieve his scythe from his back. I simply reached out and my gun materialised out of thin air.

"Don't hold back! Begin!" the Black King called out as she raised a blade to point it towards us.

By an unspoken agreement, I leapt backwards to another floor of the building as Kyrius charged forward, his billowing cloak obscuring my actions from Black Lotus's view. A loud clash signified the beginning of the melee battle as the two black Duel Avatars began to trade slashes, lunges and stabs.

It didn't feel like Black Lotus was out of practice at all... when Kyrius slashed diagonally at her, she simply backed up a little, the blade sailing past by a mere centimetre as she lashed out with her right hand. Kyrius saw it coming, and raised a bladed leg to block it. The impact still sent him flying backwards, though he was saved from the brunt of the damage.

I seized the chance to begin firing at Black Lotus with my gun in sniper mode, aiming to incapacitate rather than kill by hitting shoulders and knees. She deftly dodged every single one of my shots and began moving towards me only to be intercepted by blades coming out of the shadows around her. Kyrius rejoined the fight with a slash... from the completely wrong range again.

"An invisible blade? Interesting," Black Lotus barely even flinched as she raised a hand to block it. The shimmering extended blade quickly disappeared while Kyrius moved to get in closer accompanied by a slash from the other direction.

At that point, I quickly fired a grappling hook at a raised section of the plateau we were on and relocated there as Kyrius attempted to force our opponent up to the wall. It was barely even working, Black Lotus parried his blows easily while pushing him back with powerful stabs targeted at the blade of his scythe.

I fired a shot at the back of her right shoulder, but she somehow felt it coming and sidestepped. The round sailed harmlessly past her arm, just barely missing Kyrius. He pretty much ignored it as he continued on to deliver two consecutive slashes in an X-pattern, only for a similarly X-shaped wave to fly out towards Black Lotus. She ducked under it while slicing apart the large-calibre howitzer round I had fired at her in half, causing it to detonate harmlessly off to her sides.

"Impressive, the ability to rapidly switch from weapon to weapon quickly," she immediately deduced.

"Well thanks!" I shifted to gatling mode and began peppering her with a hailstorm of bullets.

Black Lotus quickly carved out part of the rocky ground in front of her and threw it up to absorb the gunfire. My bullets embedded themselves in the rock ineffectively, and when it finally had enough and exploded in a cloud of dust I thought I had managed to get through. But something seemed off...

"Vorpal Strike!"

The attack went through the dust cloud from the other side, and I just barely managed to throw myself aside as a beam of purple light blasted through the air where I had been half a second ago. That was too close for comfort...

But I relaxed a little too quickly as Black Lotus suddenly emerged from within the dust cloud and dashed towards me. Only my reflexes saved me from turning into sushi as I raised my gun to block the attack. Her blades clashed with it with enough force to knock me off balance, but just as she closed in for the finishing blow, I used the recoil from a howitzer shot to knock myself back out of the way to crash painfully to the ground.

"Very nice usage of recoil, Ruby Sniper," the Black King commented.

I let out a low growl as I leapt back to my feet and raised my gun to my shoulder. It quickly unfolded outwards to become a large energy cannon - the very same one I had used in my first battle against Shadow Phantom.

"Frigid Abyss!" Kyrius shouted.

"Photon Maser!" I added.

Kyrius launched the cold spheres of dark energy towards Black Lotus at the same time I fired my cannon. Both attacks sped quickly towards Black Lotus, who somehow... sliced through my energy beam, splitting it in half while using it to intercept Kyrius's attack. It caught me by surprise, so I didn't react in time when she charged at me directly through the beam until it was too late.

"Checkmate, Ruby Sniper," the Black King held a blade to my neck.

My knees gave out beneath me as I sank to the ground breathing heavily. That was too intense... Black Lotus had been fighting on an entirely different level...

"I believe that's enough for now," she retracted her blades as Kyrius approached slowly, his scythe gripped tightly in both hands.

With a nod, the cloaked Duel Avatar replaced the weapon on his back and walked over to me to extend a hand towards me. I hesitated a moment before gripping it and allowing him to pull me back onto my feet.

"Thanks," I blushed, grateful for my visor's facial coverage.

"You're welcome," Kyrius nodded.

"You two work quite well together, but Shadow Phantom, you need to give Ruby Sniper more chances to attack from long range. Ruby Sniper, you need to pick your openings more wisely too. The both of you are a little too used to solo combat."

"I do realize that," I confessed, "I didn't really train in working together with friends much since I didn't have any Burst Linker friends before to do that with. I've only had a few months with Kyrius, but even then I don't go for tag battles with him since he does have a reputation to maintain."

"I suppose that will change soon once word comes out that the two of you are in the same legion," Black Lotus chuckled. "Well, please do continue practicing. I'll be counting on your support once we begin to join in territory battles again."

"Thank you for your advice, Black Lotus," Shadow Phantom bowed.

* * *

"Why did the leave point have to be so far away?" I grumbled as I trekked across a rocky plateau with Shadow Phantom beside me.

Black Lotus didn't really have much to discuss, so we were done with the meeting rather quickly. Since we didn't have anything to do in the Unlimited Field, Kyrius and I decided to leave to go watch Sanno's planned duelling spree in the shopping district of Suginami. That was why we were now moving towards the nearest leave point... although 'near' was probably the understatement of the century considering its distance.

"Ask the creator of Brain Burst," Kyrius shrugged.

"Meh," I grunted in annoyance as I launched a rock off the side of the plateau with a kick.

"Ouch!"

...

"Did you hear something?" I asked Kyrius.

"Uhuh. Who's there!?" he quickly went to full alert and drew his scythe.

There was no response.

"Show yourself!" Kyrius called out while I summoned my gun.

"Shh! Shut up!" a voice hissed back in reply this time.

We slowly approached the edge of the plateau, still with our weapons out and readied. Looking over the edge, we could see the sandy ground far below... and there was a Duel Avatar hanging on the side of the plateau using a pair of pickaxes. He was dull grey-coloured, bearing heavy plate armour that covered the entirety of his character with heavy gauntlets, a narrow waist and heavy boots. His face was covered by a square, curved mask with a long rectangular visor where his eyes would be.

"Keep it down!" he hissed again as he looked downwards anxiously towards the ground below.

"Why?" I blinked in surprise as I followed the newcomer's eyes to a corner of the plateau.

"Hush! It's coming!" he growled.

Suddenly I became aware of the shaking ground under me. It was coming in a steady rhythm... and very powerfully too. Whatever was coming, it was really big...

The first sign was a large, rocky head poking around the corner. It looked vaguely shaped like a dragon's, but it had rocks for armour instead of typical dragon scales. A large, deadly-looking horn protruded from its forehead, ending in a jagged tip again made of hard rock. Its body was much the same - rocky all over. It lurched forward on short legs, while a pair of wings and a long rocky tail ending in a rock club completed its body.

I swallowed loudly and quickly got on my belly on the plateau, peeking over at the sight of the powerful-looking Enemy. Kyrius, for once, looked rather intimidated and was doing the same. The newcomer was now hanging perilously right above the monster... if he fell, I sure as hell wouldn't be watching.

The Enemy paused and began examining its surroundings, turning its massive rock head from side to side as its small green eyes blinked in the glare of the artificial sun. After a short moment, it looked up in our direction...

And opened its mouth where we could see an orange ball of energy forming...

...

"You have got to be shitting me," Kyrius cursed unexpectedly.

"Run!" the newcomer shouted as he launched himself onto the plateau effortlessly despite his heavy armour.

We didn't need much reminding as a powerful energy beam seared through the air, ripping out a huge chunk of rock where we had been hiding just now and melting the rock around it. By that time, all 3 of us were far away from the edge of the plateau, and I was very worried about the thing's wings...

Thankfully my fears were unfounded as it didn't pursue us.

"What was that!?" I panted as I leaned against a rock pillar a good distance away from where that monster had blasted the plateau.

"That was a legendary Enemy, the Stone Dragon Gravios," the newcomer grunted as he stood beside me with barely a sign of exertion. "I've been tracking him for days hoping to get a jump on him."

"Who are you anyway?" Kyrius studied the guy with a curious gaze.

"I suppose most people don't know about me... I'm Iron Forge. The rest of my details you can get from my stats," he said gruffly.

There was silence for a moment as both Kyrius and I brought up his stats. Then there was more silence - one could've heard a coin dropping...

"LEVEL 9!?" I exploded. "You're a King!?"

"I don't care for the levels, legions and whatnot," he waved it off nonchalantly. "All I do is make stuff. If you want to upgrade your External Armaments or have a new one made, you can look for me. Of course, be prepared to pay its worth in Burst Points."

"That explains why we haven't heard anything about another King showing up..." Kyrius mused.

"Now if you excuse me, I have a shield to make to deflect that thing's energy beam with," Iron Forge turned aside and raised a hand. "Toolbox open, mode forge."

As he said that, a box on his back opened up and fell off. He picked it up and threw it a distance away where it rapidly unfolded into a large square frame which began emitting powerful pulses of energy as the air around it cracked and distorted.

I watched in awe as four massive treads emerged from the portal, followed by an utterly humongous chassis with a collection of tools on its skeletal frame. I could see a large furnace, laser cutters and so much more I couldn't identify... It was like an entire mobile workshop on treads! The earth beneath us rumbled and shook as the monstrosity just kept... coming...

"Da Vinci, ready," a robotic voice rang out through the air once the whole... thing was completely out of the portal, which folded itself back into a box form and flew back towards a smug-looking Iron Forge, who caught it and pressed it back into the slot on his back.

I just stood there gaping at the towing monstrosity.

"Get a move on, you two!" Iron Forge hollered as he leapt onto the mobile forge thing.

"Ummm... Alright..." I muttered. "Excuse us then... we'll just leave you alone..."

* * *

A tall blue avatar stood on the battlefield, his clear, slender ice body covered in ice forming a full suit of medieval-styled chainmail armour, complete with a knightly plumed helmet with a slit for his eyes. Grasped in his right hand with its shaft planted firmly in the earth was a long trident similarly made of ice.

Overall I had to admit that Sanno in his Duel Avatar form made a far more imposing sight than he did in either his watcher avatar or his real life body.

Right now he was facing a familiar masculine black avatar with dual revolvers in hand. Midnight Gunslinger had challenged Sanno, or rather Arctic Dragoon to a match the moment we entered the shopping district. I hadn't seen him in a while, but he sure had been doing some hard grinding... he was now level 4, a good match for the level 4 Arctic Dragoon.

The battlefield for this match was the Green Belt, a map with lush, hilly terrain reminiscent of the green fields of reality. Several lakes dotted the area, with some degree of cover being offered by the occasional tree and the uneven terrain. Neither close nor long-ranged weapons were at any significant disadvantage here so it was a very popular battlefield.

"Hiyaah!" Arctic Dragoon opened the match by levering his trident at his opponent and charging right towards him while deploying an ice shield on his left hand.

Midnight Gunslinger's counter was to fire a high-calibre round right at him. The round struck true and hit the shield, instantly shattering it although Arctic Dragoon just charged on unfazed and conjured another shield, presumably from water vapour in the air. The blue Duel Avatar ducked under another shot and lunged at his opponent only for the trident to be deflected aside by a revolver in the way.

"He's too reckless," I shook my head in disapproval.

"But he has good instincts," Kyrius countered. "He can feel when there's an opening and when an attack is coming and then respond appropriately."

"So he's a natural brawler," I remarked as I watched Midnight Gunslinger snap off two more shots that buried themselves in the ground behind a charging Arctic Dragoon.

"Pretty much," Kyrius agreed.

There was a loud groan among the crowd gathered to watch as Arctic Dragoon stuck his trident in the ground and used it as leverage to deliver a powerful kick with both legs to Midnight Gunslinger's midsection that sent him flying over a hill.

"That's gotta hurt," I winced.

"What do you think of Iron Forge?" Kyrius suddenly asked.

"Why are you asking suddenly?" I turned to look at him as I cocked my head aside in curiosity.

"Well, he did offer to upgrade our External Armaments..." he said thoughtfully as he mimed swinging his scythe.

"Glacial Storm!"

Flecks of ice burst forth from Arctic Dragoon's open palm and pelted his opponent ferociously. The latter made a mad dash for cover behind a nearby tree and used it to shield himself from the icy assault while returning fire with well-aimed high explosive rounds that managed to knock the blue assailant off balance and disrupt his attack.

"Maybe sometime else, Kyrius," I smiled. "When we feel we really need it. I'm pretty sure I don't need a firepower upgrade just yet."

"True," Kyrius shrugged.

"Besides, I'd rather save my Burst Points for levelling up for now," I added as I turned my attention back to the ongoing battle in time to see our friend launching his trident at the tree shielding his opponent.

The tree froze almost instantly, and shattered when Arctic Dragoon landed a high jump kick on it. After retrieving his trident, he immediately resumed the offensive against Midnight Gunslinger, unleashing a flurry of stabs that the poor gunslinger could barely dodge.

Eventually he managed to fend off the attack by backing into a tree and deflecting the trident into the tree trunk so it got stuck in it. The tree froze over even as Midnight Gunslinger fired a point-blank shot at Arctic Dragoon's chest, knocking him backwards enough for him to unleash a special attack.

"Assault Driver!" Midnight Gunslinger fired a grappling bullet at Arctic Dragoon that dragged the hapless blue avatar towards him. Once he was close enough, he rapid-fired a series of bullets from his other revolver at point-blank range again. The attack just failed to kill him though, as he was left with a sliver of green on his health bar.

"Gotcha..." Sanno ground out through his pain as a freezing cold aura enveloped the two. "Frostbite Aura, level 3!"

The air around the two suddenly began to coalesce into a thick white mist that obscured everything in the immediate area. The ground froze over as well, prompting a few gasps of awe from the watchers. Overhead I could see Midnight Gunslinger's health bar suddenly freeze over as well, before completely shattering as if struck.

"What... just happened?" I blinked in surprise.

"That was Sanno's special ability, Frostbite Aura," Kyrius offered as we returned to real time to the hustle and bustle of the shopping district in Suginami. "I'd explain it, but it's his ability so I'll let him do it."

Sanno was standing beside us clad in a rather simple ensemble consisting of a hooded sweater and a pair of long denim jeans. He was looking a little smug after the victory, though personally I thought that smirk decorating his face somehow made him look even more perverted than usual.

"My Frostbite Aura ability slows down enemies who stay too close to me over time," Sanno explained.

"That doesn't explain the freezing," I furrowed my brow in thought.

"Let me finish! I can use my special gauge to increase the strength of the aura so it can freeze enemies. At level 2 I can freeze water to walk on it, and at level 3 anyone directly touching me will freeze over. At level 4 anyone in a 3 metre radius is frozen instantly. It takes longer to do it at range, but it is a pretty useful skill for a melee combatant like me."

"I can see why..." I mused out loud - it really did help to slow down your opponent in a close-range battle.

"He's pretty much overpowering once he gets it up to level 4..." Kyrius groaned. "He almost broke my winning streak once because of it!"

"You still won in the end!" Sanno retorted. "That cloaking ability is still as annoying now as in the past!"

"And that's just how it should be," the blonde foreigner grinned victoriously.

"You little..." Sanno groaned in resignation. "Alright, you are so getting it next time we fight."

"Bring it on!" Kyrius challenged defiantly.

"Speaking of which, you two should sign up for tag duels while we're here anyway. I haven't seen you two teaming up against anyone since the day you met," Sanno suggested.

"Well... It might draw extra attention to Ruby Sniper..." Kyrius hesitated for a moment as he shot a glance at me.

"I don't mind that," I shrugged. "It's not like they can harass me in real life for teaming up with Shadow Phantom anyway."

"Well... okay then," he sighed in defeat as he brought up his Neuro Linker's interface.

Within seconds, I had received an invite to partner up with Shadow Phantom for a Brain Burst tag duel. I quickly accepted and flashed Kyrius a smile before looking away to hide the blush that threatened to overtake my features once I saw that he was returning the smile. I still couldn't really face him directly like this!

"Let's just walk around and wait for a challenge," he suggested.

"O... Okay..." I whispered shyly.

Sanno was watching me with a very suspicious expression... I looked away from him while trying to force my blush down in vain. After a while he flashed me a grin and moved to walk beside me as I followed behind Kyrius.

"Sorry he's such a blockhead," he whispered in my ear, only causing my blush to further reach down to my neck...

"Uuuu..." I whimpered as I clapped my hands to my cheeks in embarrassment.

Sanno just chuckled and gave me a pat on the back. "Just keep it up!"

"Is something wrong?"

"No... no... nothing!" I stammered in panic as Kyrius turned back to see what was holding us up.

"Well, okay then," he nodded, then paused as he contemplated something. "Come to think of it, I do need to get some things at the supermarket. Might as well do it since we're already here."

"We'll just tag along then," Sanno nodded. "We can battle anytime after all."

It turned out that Kyrius was running a little low on cooking supplies back home. Honestly I was quite surprised to find out that he knew how to cook. I had always pegged him for the type that ate outside in restaurants all the time.

When I interrogated him about his cooking skills, he simply replied nonchalantly, "It's passable."

Somehow I doubted that was the case.

"Yuki-chan, he says that all the time but his cooking is probably up to the standard of a professional gourmet cook," Sanno chuckled heartily, having overheard the conversation.

"Really!?" I gasped in surprise.

"Yup. He makes a mean serving of ceviche you know."

"Ceviche..." I was practically drooling as I thought of Kyrius making that...

"You know, I wouldn't mind making that for you. Want to come over to my place sometime?"

...

_"Yum!"_

_"How is it, Yuki?"_

_"It's absolutely perfect! Thanks for making this ceviche for me, Kyrius!"_

_"Glad you like it! Oh, you have a bit of it left on your cheek... let me take care of it."_

...

"I think you broke her again, Kyrius. Look at how red she is."

"Huh? Is it the heat again?"

"... You, sir, may be a perfect prince at times but others you are such a blockhead."

"Blockhead?"

"Never mind."

"P... P... Plea... Please ta... take... c... c... care of m... me!" I hurriedly stammered, trying to hide my embarassment. If anything it just made it more obvious...

"Ummm, okay?" Kyrius blinked.

I felt my face get even redder if that was even possible.

As I turned to look away so Kyrius didn't have to see my embarrassed expression, I caught sight of something that made me momentarily forget about my current predicament. Beside us was an accessory shop displaying some hairclips on a screen. I usually didn't wear any... but this one drew my attention because it simply looked so nice.

"I wish I had that..." I blurted out without really realizing I was saying it out loud.

"Hmm? I didn't know you were into that," Sanno noted.

"Oh come on, I AM a girl you know," I defended myself while staring at the image of the hairclip with a silver snowflake motif with several small diamonds embedded in it around the centre. Looking into the shop, I could see it on display, and it actually sparkled in what little light was falling on it.

I let out a sigh of regret - buying that would put took big a dent in my savings... Wait a second.

... What was Kyrius doing in there?

I stared at him incredulously as he gestured towards the same hairclip I had been admiring a moment ago while talking to a salesgirl. She gave a nod and quickly went over to unlock the glass cabinet it was resting in to retrieve it. Not long afterwards Kyrius was walking out of the shop with a small box in hand and one less hairclip in the shop.

"Uh, why did you buy that?" I pointed at the hairclip in the box.

"Oh, you said you wanted it, right?"

My jaw dropped as I stared at him in shock.

"Um... How much did it cost?"

"Don't worry about it, those are actually fake diamonds on it," he waved a hand dismissively and opened the box to show the hairclip I so coveted resting inside on a velvet cushion.

"I... I couldn't possibly accept it from you, Kyrius!" I quickly reined in my greedy side and shook my head. There was no way I could accept such a nice gift from him!

But I suddenly realized the presence of a light weight on my hair fringe. When I looked back at Kyrius, the box he was holding was already empty, and he was smirking as he stepped back a little. Slowly, hesitantly, I reached my hand up to feel the weight.

... When had he managed to put it on me?

I turned to look in the window to check my reflection, and my cheeks turned a light shade of pink once I saw the hairclip on my hair in all its sparkly glory.

"It looks perfect on you, Yuki," Kyrius smiled unabashedly.

"Eh... Eh..." I squeaked shyly as my voice failed to come out. All the while my cheeks were getting redder and redder...

"You put it on wrong though, Kyrius..." Sanno frowned.

I quickly looked away back into the shop window to adjust the hairclip, fumbling a little in my embarassment. Soon I had it sitting on my head right, tucking a particularly long fringe of hair to my left hanging down to my collarbone.

"How... How is it... now?" I stammered, completely giving up any resistance I had left.

"It does match your hair perfectly..." Sanno remarked.

"And your name too. Snowflake. Yuki," Kyrius chimed in.

... I was rendered speechless by that particular comment.

"You can thank him later once you get your voice back, Yuki-chan," Sanno grinned playfully.

"Thanks a lot, Kyrius..." I spoke in barely a whisper, wondering if I should pinch myself to make sure it wasn't a dream. Inside me, my heart was beating so hard I felt like it would burst out of my chest...

"You're welcome," he smiled in return.

I just stood there in silence, nervously playing with the long fringe of hair now hanging on the left side of my face for a while.

"Well... if we're all done here, shouldn't we get going? The afternoon isn't going to last forever," Kyrius suggested.

"Okay..." I agreed in a soft voice.

Abruptly the world around us froze and turned blue with a jolt. I blinked in surprise as I felt myself enter the Accelerated World. Once I reoriented myself, I realized that I was in the courtyard of what appeared to be a great, towering old English-style castle.

Kyrius was beside me in his Shadow Phantom Duel Avatar, while Sanno was standing nearby in his watcher avatar. He quickly sprinted off before he could get caught up in the battle though.

"Well, here we go, Yuki," Kyrius gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head as our opponents materialised before us and the HUD initialised. The timer, health and special gauges dropped down from above on chains, showing our opponents to be...

Emerald Chess and Electric Circle. A level 7 and 4 respectively, in contrast to the level 6 Kyrius and level 5 me.

"Well then, let's get this started!" a completely new voice announced as I summoned my gun and Kyrius drew his scythe.

* * *

**A/N: So, three new OCs! Also, cookie for anyone who catches the not-so-subtle reference to a certain creature from a game. XD**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the long delay (especially after that cliffhanger I pulled), but writer's block combined with exams kept me from updating for quite a while. Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Emerald Chess was a short green-coloured feminine Duel Avatar wearing a long, flowing dress with puffy sleeves and silver outlines criss-crossing across its front. She was armed with a sceptre, but I couldn't quite determine what the detached head floating beside her was for. I had to admit though, the cute mustache over its mechanical lips made it look rather... harmless. That and her clearly non-combat appearance didn't give her that big a presence on the battlefield.

Electric Circle, in stark contrast, took the form of a tall electric yellow Duel Avatar with a clear circle theme - rings floating around his arms acting like the sleeves on his light cloth armour. He was holding a pair of more menacing-looking energy rings that crackled with electricity as he took the moment to look over us through a pair of circular eyes.

A defence type character and a jammer type character... What kind of weird lineup was this? No offence type character?

"Yuki, these guys are tough," Kyrius said in a serious tone.

"Uh, Emerald Chess doesn't look that intimidating..."

"Don't let her appearance fool you. She's a master strategist - that's why she's called Emerald Chess. I've heard about this pair before, although I never fought them since they only ever tag duel together," my partner admonished me.

"I never thought I'd see the day the so-revered soloist Shadow Phantom partnered up with someone for a tag duel," a high, feminine voice called out. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was Emerald Chess.

"Times change," Shadow Phantom answered back curtly.

"Must be changing a lot then. I see you rejoined Nega Nebulous."

Kyrius stayed silent.

"Well, how about we start off this battle then? We're not here to talk, we're here to fight," Emerald Chess raised her sceptre high into the air.

When she brought it down, four circles of light appeared around her and four dwarfish toy soldiers rose up out of the ground through them. I noted with some amusement that they were wielding weapons like toy hammers and small pickaxes - frankly they didn't look outfitted for war. That... and they were a bit on the cute side.

"Just remember, Ruby. Don't underestimate her," Kyrius brandished his scythe.

"I know," Kyrius's warning snapped me back to reality as I hefted my gun.

Nobody moved for several seconds until Emerald Chess lowered her sceptre to point it directly at us.

"Off with their heads!" she ordered.

Immediately the toy soldiers leapt into action, charging directly towards us. Kyrius reacted by dispatching each one of them with a single slash. At the same time, I sprang backwards to get a little further from the combat zone before deploying my sniper rifle, aiming it towards Emerald Chess.

"Your opponent is me!"

Suddenly a crackling ring of electricity flew out of nowhere and knocked my gun off target just as I pulled the trigger. My shot flew wide, burying itself in a wall a good distance away and taking a big chunk out of it. Electric Circle charged at me, forcing me to disengage from supporting Shadow Phantom to take him on in close combat.

My opponent lashed out at me with his foot as he closed into range. I heard the attack before it came - energy crackling was never ever a good sign after all. Just before his attack connected, I blasted the ground with a howitzer shot, kicking up rocks and dirt to throw his attack off. A yellow ring of energy formed around his heel, slashing clean through one of the bigger rocks I had kicked up a little higher than where I had just been.

"That looks mean," I winced.

I ducked under the next kick-slash and feigned a sweeping kick, instead opting for a punch to the gut. The yellow Duel Avatar managed to intercept the punch, but then I pulled him in and whacked him over the head with my oversized gun. The impact knocked him over onto the ground.

Just as I switched my gun to gatling mode to pulverise the guy, something hard flew at me and interrupted my attack by unbalancing me. Electric Circle seized the chance to launch a kick at me from his position on the ground. Thankfully it was just a normal one, but that didn't mean flying into a wall didn't hurt!

I managed to get a good look at the thing that had hit me just now, and was more than a little surprised to see that it was one of Emerald Chess's toy soldiers. Apparently she had used it as a projectile... what the heck?

The toy soldier thing immediately started attacking me, but I effortlessly batted it aside. At the same time Electric Circle launched an attack, riding towards me on spinning rings on the back of his feet at high speed to launch another kick. Left with no respite from the flurry of attacks, I was forced to completely drop all attempts to attack myself.

One kick came after another, until I was forced to keep backing away as the attacks left me without enough room to raise my gun. That was until I had a brainwave and fired a grappling hook at the top of one of the castle towers nearby. Just as Electric Circle launched another kick at me, I reeled myself aside and capitalised on his moment of distraction to fire my gun at him in howitzer mode.

The shell blew him a good distance away, giving me enough breathing space to check out how Kyrius was doing. Frankly he didn't seem to be doing too well - somehow Emerald Chess had summoned a pair of armoured knights on equally armoured horses that were practically driving him about the battlefield. He wasn't used to fighting more than one opponent it seemed, and it was throwing him off quite a bit.

I quickly fired off a quick salvo of rockets towards one of the knights, causing it to stumble and buying Kyrius enough time to start pushing off an assault by the other knight. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod in thanks, which I returned before Electric Circle recovered and rode back towards me on his roller boots.

I responded by firing a high-explosive round at the ground directly in between the two of us, throwing up a cloud of dirt and smoke, creating a smokescreen. At the same time I activated my jamming ability and fired a grappling hook at another nearby tower. That way I could escape more easily...

But I hadn't counted on the guy being able to blow the smoke away quickly using a pair of thrown spinning rings. With a muted curse, I set my point-defence guns to spray him with bullets before he could react to keep him from following me. The minuscule damage he sustained barely deterred him, although he did bring his arms up reflexively to shield himself from the attack for a moment.

That short moment gave me a much-needed reprieve to slip out of sight even while dropping a few landmines on the rooftop I had landed on. I checked to make sure my jamming was still active before switching to sniper mode. Emerald Chess was still engaged with my shadowy partner, but now she was standing right beside what looked like a large rock tower resembling a large rook chess piece with a large green orb on top of it. That same tower was projecting a large sphere of energy around it that appeared to be blocking Shadow Phantom's attacks...

Shadow Phantom himself was still trying to simultaneously fight off two knight pieces at once and having trouble with them due to their relentless combined assault. It didn't help that Emerald Chess was summoning more pawns to keep him busy. As I watched, she raised her sceptre and depleted half her special gauge while one of her pawns suddenly... dissolved into a pile of sand.

Soon enough that pile of sand reformed itself into the shape of a hulking armoured figure equipped with a massive tower shield and a sceptre. It lumbered forward and raised its sceptre to point it at Shadow Phantom, who only just noticed in time and dove out of the way as a streak of green lightning shot out of the end with a loud crackle, impacting the ground and leaving being a patch of scorched earth.

_"I could use some support here!"_ I jumped as Kyrius's clearly disgruntled voice rang out through our communication link.

I knew if I could take out Emerald Chess, I'd be able to stop the chess pieces' attacks... Thankfully my special gauge was just about charged enough - I just hoped I had the time to charge up my attack.

The explosions from behind me and a loud curse told me I didn't have long to do it.

I hurriedly levelled my gun at the green Duel Avatar while it folded outwards into its railgun form, with the spike on the bottom driving into the floor for added stability. The smell of ozone and the crackling of electricity from the high-powered railgun rails would give away my location quickly, so I really needed to make it quick.

"25 percent..." I muttered as the barrel began to emit a ruby red glow.

Thankfully Emerald Chess wasn't paying attention to me and was just standing there behind her energy shield. I let the charge build up while staying mindful of the series of explosions going on behind me indicating Electric Circle's steady approach. By the time he reached my location, it was already too late.

"Railgun Strike!"

A plume of plasma from the muzzle of my gun accompanied my shout even as the railgun spike exited it with a loud sonic boom. Electric Circle was knocked back a good distance into a wall despite his best efforts to shield himself, the impact putting a good dent in his health bar.

The spike closed the distance between Emerald Chess and myself within half a second, effortlessly penetrating the energy field between us and punching clean through her doll-like Duel Avatar. Or at least I thought it did - the plasma plume lingered too long for me to see her clearly.

I held my breath and waited. Nothing ever survived my railgun strikes, but it didn't truly satisfy me until I saw the results of the attack. I chanced a glance up at the status bars at the top of my HUD...

... To find out she was barely even scratched by the attack.

If my Duel Avatar's jaw could drop, it would be several feet underground by now. How in the world did she survive a hit from a tungsten spike moving at Mach 5!? There was absolutely no way anyone could take my ultimate attack head-on without breaking a sweat!

At that moment, the plasma cleared, allowing me to see that the energy field surrounding her previously had disappeared, which shouldn't be the case if only Emerald Chess had survived... I scanned around in shock for several moments for any indicators of what had happened, and then noticed that Emerald Chess was standing where the rook had been several moments ago.

...

_"If her moves follow chess tradition, then that's definitely castling,"_ Kyrius had also noticed the difference.

"Well great," I grumbled as my gun automatically shifted back to its default sniper rifle mode and began the long and tedious cooldown process.

Emerald Chess was slightly disorientated by the near escape, but quickly summoned a second rook and ducked into its energy shield again.

_"Damn. Don't feel bad, Yuki. We didn't know her capabilities until now. We'll just have to try to overload that shield through some other way."_

_"I probably won't get a second chance."_

_"Why?"_

I couldn't reply immediately as I hurriedly leapt over a sweeping kick from Electric Circle.

_"I see why."_

_"Yup."_

_"Lead him back to me, we'll swap targets. Just try to..."_ Kyrius paused for a moment before continuing somewhat hesitantly, _"... hold Emerald Chess off until I can finish off Electric Circle."_

_"You don't sound very confident in my fighting ability,"_ I noted sadly.

_"Not that I'm saying you're weak, but Emerald Chess is way too strong for you,"_ he hurriedly got out in between dodging lance charges. _"We need to switch before you get overwhelmed!"_

_"Trying!"_ I gritted my teeth and ducked as a flying ring nearly took my head off.

Electric Circle had me completely cornered - I couldn't move without having to dodge his attacks while being almost completely incapable of countering while my gun was cooling down. The most I could do was try and ram the hot, smoking barrel into him, but he kept dancing just out of reach, his flying ring attacks easily keeping me on the defensive from a safe distance.

Didn't help that my point-defence guns barely even fazed him anymore.

"What's the matter, can't attack?" Electric Circle taunted.

I clenched my jaw shut, determined not to respond to his provocation. Instead I took it out on one of the rings flying my way, using my gun as a baseball bat again to send it flying right back at him. He met it with another thrown ring that deflected the attack.

It took a while, but I managed to draw Electric Circle a bit closer to where our partners were still fighting it out. He had also noticed, and had ben trying to force me away without much success. As I rounded a corner of the castle I discreetly palmed a landmine from my backpack dispenser and lightly slapped it onto the wall.

Right as Electric Circle came around it, the mine blew up almost in his face, stunning him a little and allowing me to dash towards Kyrius. He had managed to take down a Knight, but now there were two of those sceptre-wielding armoured things on the field chasing him around with their chain lightning. If her arsenal was based around chess pieces, it probably made sense that those were Bishops. The Pawns, Knights and Rooks were pretty obvious after all.

"Switch!" Kyrius called out loud, stepping aside as I dashed in and tossed a landmine at one of the Bishops. It made a clean impact on its large round belly and exploded, but didn't seem to deal much damage.

Emerald Chess didn't even seem surprised at the turn of events as she pointed her sceptre towards me. The remaining Knight and the two Bishops rushed forward while I gripped my gun tight around the barrel to use it as a club.

Kyrius was already engaging Electric Circle in combat, and was having a far easier time as he used his stealth to great effect against a single target. He would disappear around a corner and wait for the guy to follow him before abruptly reappearing behind him and launching attacks at him.

That was until the sole Knight changed course and began heading for Kyrius again.

"Look out!"

Kyrius threw himself out of the path of the Knight with a loud grunt only to get nailed by one of Electric Circle's flying rings, which wrapped around his scythe arm. It began to deal miniscule, but steady damage even as he swung his scythe around to release a wave of energy right towards the yellow Duel Avatar.

... Except what came out wasn't an energy wave but rather a double slash forming an X in mid-air. Given the range it of course completely missed.

"What the..." Kyrius began in astonishment, but before he could finish he was tackled by both his opponent and the Knight.

What the heck had just happened? It wasn't like him to mistake one skill for the other...

"Ugh!"

I almost didn't dodge that lightning bolt in time - as it was, it singed my Duel Avatar's helmet and depleted my health slightly. Thankfully my gun's cooling cycle was finished now so I quickly swung around before the Bishop could fire off another bolt to blast it in the face with a rocket salvo. It staggered back from the impact, allowing me to deal the finishing blow by jumping onto it and ramming my gun barrel into the helmet while switching to sniper mode.

One quick pull of the trigger and the Bishop disintegrated into dust soon afterwards.

"Gah!"

Kyrius's shout distracted me enough for the remaining Bishop to barrel into me, knocking me towards my partner who had gotten caught with several more of Electric Circle's rings. In my stumble somehow the peep managed to nail me with a ring. I had to hold back a gasp as arcs of electricity jumped to my armour, giving me a small electric shock.

I quickly realized the precarious position we were in, being pinned together and switched my gun to cannon mode to try and blast Electric Circle to escape. Instead, my gun shifted to gatling mode. The same thing that had happened to Kyrius... Wait a second, it must be the rings! Somehow they were disrupting our commands and causing us to unleash different attacks than the ones we actually wanted to use...

No wonder Electric Circle was a jammer type Duel Avatar...

"Sorry about breaking your winning streak, Shadow Phantom," Emerald Chess said victoriously. "No hard feelings. Checkmate!"

I didn't know why Kyrius froze at those words, but when the detached head floating beside Emerald Chess flew high into the air above us and transformed into a humongous King chess piece, I knew it was all over for us. The piece crashed down on us, and my vision spiralled into darkness.

* * *

"That didn't go too well..." I grumbled.

"Nope it didn't," Sanno shook his head.

Kyrius himself appeared to be deep in thought, eyes closed and a finger at his chin.

"I know that voice..." he mused.

"We did it!"

I froze. That voice was clearly...

"Keep it down! You know this isn't really something to be celebrated out in public!"

"Sorry, onee-chan..."

Kyrius's twitching eyebrow told me he definitely knew the owner of the voice. The origins of the two voices were in fact standing a short distance away, conversing beside a convenience store nearby.

The two appeared to be the same age at about 15, a boy and a girl. The girl had long dark brown hair falling down to just below her shoulders let loose, and stood about 150 cm tall. She was dressed in casual clothing, an orange tee paired with a white knee-length skirt with a loosely-buckled belt going around it. Brown slippers and a crown-shaped hairclip completed her getup.

Her brother in comparison had short, slicked back black hair and was about 10 cm taller. He wore a simpler outfit consisting of an orange tee and black knee-length pants. Unsurprisingly the two outfits matched each other - going by how the boy has addressed the girl earlier it was probably safe to assume they were siblings.

"I didn't think I'd see you here, Miss Amato."

Now it was my turn to twitch my eyebrow when I saw Kyrius approach the girl.

"Me either, Igzelier-san," the girl responded with a handshake that was a little tight it seemed.

The boy just looked on a little confused.

"Who's this, Kyrius?" Sanno asked as we made our way over to them.

"Oh, this is..." Kyrius gestured at the girl, "Kanata Ama-"

"Amato Kanata! Still the same as ever, getting Japanese surnames and given names mixed up I see," the girl bristled.

"Anyway, she's Amato Kanata and he's Amato Shirogane," Kyrius continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "They're fraternal twins."

That explained the lack of age difference...

"How do you know them?" I asked.

Kyrius's eyebrow twitched again.

"Since he won't answer, I'll tell you myself. I beat him in a prefecture-level chess competition two years back," Kanata swelled with pride.

"My sister also went on to win the nationals and later an international competition," Shirogane added, "Now she's a chess grandmaster."

"A chess grandmaster!?" I gasped. No way!

"I see you went on to greater heights..." Kyrius barely seemed fazed by the bold statement.

"And I see you've been wasting away..."

The tension in the atmosphere was unmistakable.

"Shouldn't you introduce me to your friends?" Kanata asked.

"Uh... I'm Tsukihara Yukina," I offered after a moment's hesitation.

"Uehara Sanno, at your service," Sanno was back in his pervert mode again, if the flashing in his eyes and his tone were any indication...

"Nice to meet you!" Kanata flashed us a wide, jovial grin in stark contrast to the heated staredown she had been having with Kyrius a very short moment ago. It confused me a little, but I took her offered handshake.

"You really don't see silver hair often..." she remarked.

"Genetic defect, apparently," I gave the extremely familiar reply to that particular statement.

"Well, I won't deny you're quite pretty with it..." she nodded. "Perhaps ruby-coloured hair might also be your thing?"

... Yup, she knew.

"Likewise, you could use some emerald highlights," I replied.

She smiled knowingly in reply. "Not every day you find out someone beside you's a Burst Linker now."

"Yeah. That was a really good fight, even if we did lose," I let a sigh escape my lips as I glanced at Kyrius.

"By the way, just curious..." Kanata leaned in close to whisper in my ear, "You're interested in him, aren't you?"

...

"Wha... Wha... What are you talking about...?" I stammered, trying and failing to hold back the blush now overtaking my cheeks.

"You know, it's pretty obvious from the way you keep staying close to him and glancing in his direction while rubbing your fingers... Body language says it all."

I ducked my head in defeat. Dang, she was reading me like an open book...

"You tend to pick up on stuff like that in my line of work," Kanata chuckled.

"I suppose so..." I groaned.

"Not the first time he lost to me in chess either. You wouldn't believe how irked up he got whenever he did."

"It seems like he still does get irritated at it..." I chanced another glance at him and blushed a little before turning back to Kanata.

"Indeed he does. Incidentally, you should tell him to work on taking on multiple targets at once. I can tell he's not very good at it."

"Well, he HAS been fighting solo for a very long while..."

"Explains it. Hard to match a man of his reputation to how he acts in real life."

"Just curious, but why are you helping us? We were fighting each other mere moments ago..."

"My chess mentor taught me to respect all opponents equally on the playing field, regardless of how badly or how well they play. It's the same for Burst Linker duels, no? Besides, maybe I'll be able to have a match again with you two in the future that will be more fun than this one," Kanata explained.

"I suppose..." I nodded in understanding. "Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure to convey your words."

"Also, that's a really nice hairclip you have there. Where did you get it?"

I blushed as I gestured back in the direction of the shop Kyrius had bought it at. "Kyrius bought it for me."

"I see... Perhaps you left a better impression on him than you thought you did," she mused while staring closely at my new hairclip.

"What do you mean by that?" I blinked in confusion.

"Nothing..." Suddenly Kanata's eyes flashed over to something on her Neuro Linker's HUD before she continued, "I really should go, I still have some things left to do here."

"Okay. See you around then, Kanata-san!" I nodded.

Kanata just smiled and walked over to where her brother was talking with the other two guys in my group to give him a small tug on the sleeve. Shirogane quickly excused himself from the conversation and ran off to join his sister as she moved across the street, disappearing into the crowds of people.

Well, she wasn't really a bad person...

"At least they were quite nice about it," Sanno quipped as he approached me.

"Not people I would've expected to be Burst Linkers," Kyrius sighed in disappointment. Looked like he was still upset over the loss.

"Don't get too worked up over it!" I lightly scolded the foreigner. "We just have to work out the kinks so we can beat them next time!"

"Maybe I'm better off soloing," Kyrius grumbled.

"You just need to get used to working together as a team," Sanno patted his friend on the back. "Besides, you usually don't expect to have to take on multiple targets like that in the usual one versus one duels."

"Well, Kanata-san did say that you needed work on that," I nodded.

Kyrius's eyebrow twitched again.

"Want to go get a drink? That battle made me feel rather thirsty," he walked off in the direction of a... stationery store nearby.

...

"He's annoyed," Sanno noted.

"Yup, he's definitely annoyed," I agreed, repressing a chuckle. Kyrius was actually somewhat cute when he was flustered.

* * *

Soon it was time for lunch, so we started hunting for places to eat at. Of course we did briefly contemplate my favourite French restaurant, but the other two didn't really feel in the mood for it. In the end I had to be dragged from the front of the restaurant while staring at it longingly.

"Come on, Yuki, we'll show you somewhere else to eat. I get the feeling this place is the only one you ever eat at here," Kyrius grinned.

"Hey!" I huffed, "I'll have you know I only ate here like... 6 times in the past month?"

...

"Guilty as charged!" Sanno laughed.

"I work here, of course I'd know!" Kyrius followed suit.

I ducked my head in embarassment.

In the end we sat down at a quaint little ramen shop where I was introduced to the ramen there. I had my misgivings about the dreary atmosphere there at first, but all doubts evaporated when I saw the bowl of ramen the cook put down on the counter.

Frankly put, it was huge and filled with all manners of toppings.

"Whoah, I can barely see the bottom of the bowl," I picked at it with my chopsticks.

"Good luck with that! It's on the house if you can finish it," Sanno chuckled. "Kyrius and I have been trying for the past few weeks since we found the place, but we haven't succeeded once."

"Interesting..." I stared at the bowl in awe.

"Think you're up for it?" the cook grinned jovially at me, having overheard the conversation. "So far only ten people in my shop's history have managed to finish my Super Special Ramen!"

I suspected the reason the two of them had brought me here was because they knew about my bottomless stomach and wanted to test to see how much I could actually eat before calling it quits. Well, I fully intended to live up to their expectations, so I simply grinned and took up the chopsticks.

"Itadakimasu!"

It was about half an hour before I realized that I was already about 3 quarters of the way through the bowl of ramen and the two guys had already stopped barely halfway through theirs. That and the fact that they were staring at me open-mouthed with their tongues lolling out almost made me burst into laughter.

Of course, when I had my mouth stuffed full of ramen while trying to laugh, I'd naturally choke.

"Mmmmph!" I gestured wildly at a nearby glass of water while holding my throat.

Kyrius quickly got the idea and passed me the glass. I took several deep draughts before putting it back down, satisfied that the blockage was gone.

"Sure you can continue?" Kyrius asked, apparently having misinterpreted my choking as a sign that I was at my limit.

"Well... I can still keep going for a bit," I nodded, taking another look at the bowl. I could almost see the bottom... To be honest, I was starting to feel a little full so I needed to start pacing myself. Still, I was sure I could finish it.

It took about 10 more minutes of slow eating before I actually found myself shaking as I lifted the last bit of ramen up to my mouth. Kyrius and Sanno watched with bated breath, and I found myself dreading the last bit... Too much meat! Nonetheless I gulped and finished it off.

Once I was done chewing and swallowing, I flashed a V-sign with my hand and forced a smile. I was definitely not going to do that again anytime soon - I swore I'd be dining on vegetables for the next couple days just after all this meat... Ugh, I needed to stop thinking about it or I'd end up doing a semi-digested ramen fountain.

And the very thought of that made me want to vomit even more.

"Not bad!" the cook broke out in applause.

"Wow, you actually finished it..." Kyrius gaped.

"Too much meat..." I groaned, patting my bloated belly.

"Damn, you really do have a bottomless stomach..." Sanno shook his head in disbelief.

"This hit my limit though," I confessed.

"You seem to eat a lot more French food than this though," Kyrius remarked.

"Of course I can eat a lot of it, it's my favourite food! This ramen, not really."

"Can I ask for your name?" the cook asked. "Just to put up in my Hall of Fame."

"Of course," I agreed as I brought up my Neuro Linker's messenger and typed out the characters for my name on it. "I'm Tsukihara Yukina."

A quick flick and the cook had received the message. He smiled as he turned to regard the screen on the wall. Soon it updated to include my name alongside the names of the other people who apparently completed the Super Special Ramen Challenge. I wondered if I should feel a sense of accomplishment about it...

"Right, if all that's done then I suppose we should go..." Sanno was making to leave when the door closed in front of him.

"Before that, you two forgot to pay up," the cook grinned.

"Not again!" Sanno blanched.

"Incidentally how many times have you two tried to finish it?" I arched an eyebrow at the word 'again'.

Kyrius did some quick mental recalling before replying calmly, "13 times."

I gaped in surprise. That really was a LOT of attempts...

"To be honest I'm starting to get sick of the stuff..." Kyrius whispered in a hushed tone, "But Sanno's too persistent."

Inwardly I was laughing - how did they think they'd be able to finish something like this with so short a time interval in between? The lingering taste would just make it harder for them to finish with each successive attempt! Unable to hold my amusement in, I let out a light chuckle.

"Hey! Don't laugh!" Sanno moaned as he paid the bill.

"Well at least Sanno's always the one paying," Kyrius grinned.

"Not you too! Ugh..."

"Come again soon!" the cook laughed as the door opened to allow us to exit.

Sanno was slumped forward on his way out as he stared blankly at something on his Neuro Linker's HUD. Most likely the window indicating his remaining balance in his wallet. Well, served him right for not thinking clearly about how to clear that eating challenge! Somehow the scene was comical to look at.

"So... Where to now? We still have quite a bit of time to kill," Kyrius asked, sparing only a sideways glance at his best friend who was still grieving for his savings.

"I dunno..." I checked the time. Only 2:48 pm... Yeah, we did have plenty of time to kill. "Did you finish all the homework Hasegawa-sensei asked us to do?"

"Yup," Kyrius nodded and we turned as one towards Sanno. Our classes mostly shared the same teachers after all... we had Maths taught by him on the same day, just on different periods so he was bound to give us the same homework.

His agape expression told us all we needed to know.

"You know... He DID tell us he wanted it in his email by tomorrow morning..." I sighed.

"Oh crap," Sanno paled even more.

"Can't be helped..." Kyrius scratched his head and sighed, "Let's head to the library. It's better to study there. Is that fine, Yuki?"

"I don't see a problem with that," I nodded. "I do want to read up on some things too anyway."

"Then it's settled," the class president declared.

"Oh thank you, kind goddess!" Sanno abruptly rushed towards me in glee, his arms spread out wide to envelope me in a hug...

I quickly cut it short with a fist right to his gut before he could get close. "Get away from me, Erohara-baka!"

His fingers still brushed across my chest, making me squeak in surprise. My cheeks reddened once my mind had processed what had just happened... and automatically I lashed out with my open right hand.

*smack*

The reaction ended up with the pervert lying on the ground with a fresh bright red handprint on his left cheek.

"You deserved it," I muttered, folding my arms.

Quick as a flash Sanno was back on his feet hugging Kyrius's legs while proclaiming his eternal gratitude. The latter was already looking rather distressed, but had no real way to dislodge him. Plus we were starting to draw a bit of attention... I quickly stepped a bit further away from the scene while shaking my head when Kyrius gave me a pleading look.

It was at that exact moment that I suddenly caught sight of a familiar, petite figure watching from the other side of the road. Her small figure clad in a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with a white collar and a red ribbon tied around the neck paired with a beige skirt with a chequered pattern, she stared at the scene unfolding beside me with a neutral expression on her face. Her short red hair worn in twin tails left me with no doubt as to her identity.

She noticed me staring and gave me a nod of acknowledgment before turning away. Within moments the crowd engulfed her, and she was gone by the time they had dispersed. I only inclined my head slightly before turning back towards Kyrius and Sanno. It had been ages since I last saw her... I just hoped she wouldn't mind my current situation too much.

_"I'm counting on you to watch my back, Lava!"_

_"Leave it to us, Red King!"_

_"Heat Blast Saturation!"_

_"Volcanic Wrath!"_

_"Full Salvo!"_

_The combined shockwaves from all our attacks rippled across the battlefield, knocking the rest of our opponents off their feet as the attacks solidly impacted on their intended targets. While my weapons began their cooldown process, my legion leader removed her fortress External Armament and floated down beside me._

_"Think we got all of them," I nodded._

_"Didn't think we'd face this much resistance taking this territory," Scarlet Rain breathed._

_"Me neither..." Lava Blaster agreed._

_I shared a look with Scarlet Rain and grinned as I turned to look at my mentor. She stood on a mound of dirt nearby, surveying the damage done to the battlefield. It probably helped that all our attacks were wide area attacks. Lava Blaster's own finisher had all but liquefied a wide tract of land, leaving melting hulks that had formerly been Burst Linkers floating on top of a veritable sea of magma._

_"Still as destructive as ever," Scarlet Rain casually remarked._

_"I'm pretty sure bisecting a hill counts as destructive enough yourself," Lava Blaster gestured at the hill in the distance that had pretty much been split in half by our legion master's attack._

_"Whereas I didn't do much," I grumbled. My own attack only left lots of craters in the ground and nothing more - my attack power was too lacking to destroy any major terrain features._

_"Don't worry, Ruby. You'll get your time to shine," my mentor patted my head gently as she hopped over to us._

_I put a hand to where her hand had been and blushed slightly in embarassment. Sometimes I did so hate her for blatantly showing off her power..._

"Yuki..."

"Huh?" I blinked as I was forcefully snapped out of my reminiscing back to reality.

Kyrius was standing in front of me waving a hand in front of my eyes. And his face was close enough for me to look clearly into his eyes... Wait. Wasn't this a little bit too close? Okay, perhaps a little bit was an understatement. Way too close!

...

"Uwaaah!" I shrieked in surprise and took a step back only to end up tripping over the curb running along the sidewalk.

Immediately Kyrius reacted by grabbing my hand and leaning backwards so I didn't end up on the ground. He managed to do it in time too, and quickly pulled me back up to my feet gently. I was so stunned, but just about the only thing that registered in my head were Kyrius's warm hand...

...

Was I actually touching them? No, this must be a dream... Yes, it was definitely a dream, because there was no way this could happen in reality...

"Yuki, are you alright?"

No, it wasn't a dream.

As Kyrius let go of my hand, I actually reacted by reaching for his hand, but I snapped myself out of my stupor quickly enough to stop the action, instead turning it into a head scratch.

"I'm... I'm fine..." I whispered.

"Really?" he didn't seem to buy it.

"Really!" I forced myself to laugh while shifting both my hands to my back where I cradled the one Kyrius had grabbed with the other.

That lingering bit of warmth seemed to spread to my heart as I did so...

"Well okay then. I guess we'd better go and catch up to Sanno," he nodded and turned to look for his best friend.

Needless to say, my mood quickly shattered once he changed the topic.

...

"Stupid blockhead Kyrius," I muttered.

"Tadaima," I grunted distractedly as I pushed open the door to my apartment.

"Okaeri, Yuki-chan!" My brother called out from the living room. "You sound exhausted."

I dragged myself all the way to the living room and tumbled onto the 3-seater sofa not occupied by my brother. Ryusei couldn't have put it a better way - I was seriously knackered. It wasn't in the physical sense from the walking around, but rather I was mentally exhausted after trying to teach Sanno.

Honestly, it was like teaching an impatient monkey with perverted hobbies. Then again, that probably was quite the apt way to describe him. Without fail, every time a girl walked past he would inadvertently sneak glances at her and comment on her appearance.

Somehow that had ended up with him giving a very colourful reply to what was supposed to be a Maths question.

_"What's the probability of getting a total number of less than 6 when you roll a dice three times and sum up all the numbers obtained?"_

_"Uh, that's... whoa, that girl's bra is showing."_

_*thwack*_

Even just thinking of it made me sigh in exasperation. In the end it had taken Sanno three whole hours to finish a piece of homework that normally should've taken only half an hour. Seriously, I had no idea how that guy survived in school so far. Even though I had a book ready to smack him with, he still managed to get distracted countless times.

"Well... At least I got something out of it..." I blushed as I gently fingered the hairclip Kyrius had bought for me.

"Oh? That's a nice accessory you got there, Yuki-chan," Ryusei remarked as he leaned in for a better look. "A snowflake? Suits you well."

"Thanks, onii-chan," I grinned.

Then my brother paused as he was looking away. The next moment he was staring intently at the hairclip again.

"Yuki. You do know we can't really afford expensive stuff like this."

"Eh?"

Oh, he must be talking about the fake diamonds...

"Onii-chan, those diamonds are fake ones," I assured him.

"Really?" my brother frowned. "Because I can tell the difference between a fake and a real diamond, and those are certainly real diamonds."

...

"Are you sure?" I asked hesitantly.

"Dead sure. How much did it cost? There's no way you wouldn't be able to tell from the price tag..."

I was about to answer when I suddenly realized I didn't have the answer to give him. When Kyrius bought it he hadn't said anything about the price... Wait a second... Could it be that he... he...

"Yuki-chan?"

...

"Eh... Are you alive? Earth to Yuki-chan..."

...

*thump*

"Whoa! Don't faint here!"

* * *

**A/N: I know this is a wee bit shorter than my usual 8k words a chappie, but writer's block does that to you. =X ****I'll be going on vacation in a week and a half or so from the date of this update, so don't expect to see an update till around the... 20th or so.**

**Originally I planned to feature a territory battle or two before going into the Chrome Disaster arc, but I don't know if I can fill up another chapter with that and some other stuff. Never mind, I'll just start right with the CD arc next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: Alright, this took a while... It feels like it's getting a bit harder to find inspiration nowadays. Anyway, I present to you chapter 10 of Accel World: Ruby Chronicles! And the official beginning of the Chrome Disaster arc!**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

"Is there something on my face, Yuki?"

"No... Nothing!"

I squirmed as I looked away from Kyrius, unable to meet his eyes. It had been like this ever since I had found out that he had actually bought that hairclip with real diamonds set in it for me... How the heck had he managed to buy something that expensive anyway? I didn't dare to return it in case he got mad, but at the same time I didn't want him to go broke just for a little gift like this...

"That's a really nice hairclip, Yuki-chan!" Inoha grinned beside me.

"Ah..." I blushed bright red as the subject of my conflict was mentioned. I still liked wearing it, even though I felt a little guilty about it...

Our little group had taken to having lunch together on the rooftop of our school during recess. Currently I was digging into my own bento mostly consisting of healthier vegetarian sandwiches - I was still wary of all the fat I had ingested during the ramen shop eating contest thingy from a few days back.

... Sanno had apparently tried to finish that ramen two more times and still failed at it. Kyrius had told me that he was a little irritated that a girl had managed to out-eat him.

"Hey, you're right... That is a very nice hairclip, Yuki-chan," Phoenicia peered closer from her position beside me. "Where did you get it? It really suits you!"

"Eh, uh..." I stammered, unable to offer a good reply. I couldn't tell them that Kyrius had bought it for me! I simply couldn't!

Even as I stuttered and stammered trying to think up a good answer, I gave Kyrius a pleading look. At the same time I realized I was looking at the guy who had bought it for me in the first place, so my cheeks naturally responded by flashing bright red.

And Phoenicia was certainly good enough to read between the lines and notice.

"Kyrius-san, you bought it for her!" the petite bookworm pointed an accusing finger at him.

... Oops.

"Huh, what?" Kyrius blinked in surprise, having been engaged in conversation with Sanno and Aida before being interrupted.

"Really!?" Inoha clapped her hands together while staring at me with those gleaming puppy eyes...

...

I ducked my head, blushing even harder if that was even possible. Apparently Inoha took that as confirmation and squealed loudly before engulfing me in a hug, almost making me drop my sandwich. As it was, the sudden action shocked me into gulping down a big chunk of as-yet unchewed sandwich that lodged in my throat.

...

"Mmmmph mmmmph!" I desperately beat against Inoha's back, trying to get her to release me...

"Akizaki-san, Tsukihara-san is turning purple," Tsubasa pointed out matter-of-factly.

Inoha didn't seem to notice.

"MMMMPH!"

"Actually now she's turning blue," Tsubasa corrected himself.

"Eh?"

I gestured wildly at the bottle of water beside my bento even as spots started to grow in my vision. Pretty much only Phoenicia noticed and quickly handed the bottle to me while trying to force a somewhat stunned Inoha to let go. Somehow I managed to get the bottle cap off and free myself from the clutches of one of my best friends to quickly lift it to my lips and gulp a mouthful of water down.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips once I had cleared the blockage.

"I thought I was... gonna die..." I wheezed.

"Sorry, Yuki-chan..." Inoha quickly apologized.

I was still too breathless to give her a long reply... and a good scolding...

"Inoha-san, please don't do that when people are eating!" Phoenicia did it in my place though, thankfully.

The other Burst Linkers here had joined Nega Nebulous as well, after Kyrius explained the situation to them. There was some initial resistance, especially from Phoenicia. Well, that was understandable considering her inquisitive nature - she wanted to know why in the world we were joining up with the legion of one of the most infamous traitor Burst Linkers ever to walk the face of the Accelerated World.

That particular argument had lasted an hour before she was convinced.

I gulped down several more breaths worth of fresh air to fill my lungs before looking back up and at the rest of the group. Then another gulp as I realized the girls were all staring at me with expressions ranging from shocked to dreamy. As for the guys... Sanno was clapping a stuttering Kyrius on the back while Tsubasa occasionally sneaked glances at either of them while sipping from a cup of green tea.

"So... How did it feel?" Inoha asked.

"What?" I sighed as I lifted the bottle to my lips again.

"Receiving a gift from Kyrius."

At least this time I managed to consciously spin myself around before the fountain of water escaping my mouth could get on anyone or anything. Well, except for Sanno, who took a bit of it to the face. Tsubasa sitting beside him had somehow managed to duck in time.

"... Yuki-chan, why do you always do that to me?" the unlucky guy groaned as he wiped the water off with his sleeve.

I didn't know how, but when Sanno was nearby when someone shocked me enough while drinking to do a water fountain, he'd always get it right in the face. It wasn't the first time this had happened - far from it in fact. Felt like he was just magnetically attracted to water or something. Tsubasa, having hung out with us usually on those occasions had developed a sense for when I was going to do a spit-take while drinking - thankfully. He really didn't deserve to get hit in the face with a spray of water and saliva.

"I swear I'll never get tired of seeing that happen to the damned pervert," Inoha grinned. She still hadn't forgotten her first meeting with the guy in question.

Yep, Erohara Sanno really deserved the water fountains to the face.

"Hey, I'm not a pervert! It's called being appreciative of the beauty bestowed upon females by god!" Sanno protested.

"In the end that's just another way of saying you're perverted," I drawled disinterestedly. Phoenicia nodded her agreement as she shot a fierce glare at the pervert that looked decidedly out-of-place on her soft features.

Thankfully the conversation had turned away from its earlier topic. I could tell Kyrius was also sighing in relief at having been spared the interrogation from the girls.

"Ohohoho!"

... Oh great, not her again.

Takanashi Hoseki promptly made her arrival known by plonking herself down beside Kyrius, forcing her way into the cramped space between him and Sanno. The latter didn't seem to mind after Hoseki gave her skirt a deliberately exaggerated pat down and tossed her hair over her shoulder. That, and the clearly fake smile plastered on her lips as she turned to glance at him.

My eyebrow twitched.

"I overheard the whole thing! So... Kyrius-sama bought a hairclip for Tsukihara-san?" Hoseki glared at me.

Unsurprisingly she had mostly gone back to her earlier personality after a while. She treated me with contempt while still making sure to suck up to Kyrius every time she saw him. Luckily she had stopped referring to me as an idiot, otherwise I'd give her a good socking every time I saw her... in the Accelerated World, of course.

And dang it, she just had to bring up the hairclip AGAIN!

"Ah, I just remembered I have to help a teacher with something," I lied to get myself out of there as I rose to my feet. "See you later!"

"Huh?" Inoha blinked.

I quickly dashed off in the direction of the stairs leading down into the school building before anyone else could react.

"Ah, she's escaping!" Inoha's voice rang out seconds later.

"Sorry, I'll make it up to you another time!" I muttered under my breath as I took the steps two at a time, my distinctive long silver hair flying behind me as I put as much distance between myself and the overly inquisitive girls as possible. Sure, the interrogation was inevitable, but that didn't mean that I couldn't put it off for as long as I could! I simply wasn't ready yet!

... Ah, skidded off a step.

*crash*

...

"Owwwww!"

* * *

"Uwaaah, everything's spinning around..." I slurred from my position on Kyrius's back.

"Well, you did slip on a staircase and bang your head on it..." Kyrius sighed. "You're darn lucky you didn't get a concussion out of it."

"Isn't there... a wall in front? Oh, a corridor... Wait, it's a window..."

"... Forget it, I'll wait until you're sober."

"Whoa, she really outdid herself this time..."

"Yep, this is the first time she's ever done this."

"Munyaa..." I mumbled, still very much dazed.

* * *

"... Please forget what just happened," I pleaded, my cheeks flushed with embarassment from the incident with the stairs earlier.

Of course, it wasn't just from the fact that I had completely embarrassed myself... But of all people, it had to be Kyrius to carry me to the infirmary! Why him!? Why not... well, then again I wouldn't really trust anyone else in the group to piggyback me. Sanno was far more likely to 'accidentally' grope me while carrying me. Tsubasa was a bit too quiet, and the other girls didn't quite have the strength.

"Blackmail material!" Inoha chirped.

I froze.

"You evil... evil... evil person!" I pointed a finger at her accusingly.

"Well, you deserve it for trying to escape the questioning," Phoenicia put her hands on her hips in a mock scolding pose.

I sighed, knowing the inevitable was coming up right next.

"All right, all right! I liked the feeling of getting it from Kyrius!" I threw my hands up in the air in defeat.

"Much better," Inoha grinned... somehow ominously.

I was blushing like there was no tomorrow as I stared at my feet to avert Kyrius's eyes - not like I could actually look at him after confessing. Out the corner of my eye I could see the other two girls discussing something in low voices... and I was pretty sure the implications did not bide well for me.

The bell rang, indicating that the next period had started. We had already skipped a period sitting in the infirmary, so we probably should go back to class. I heaved a sigh of relief and got up off the infirmary bed I had been sitting on. Thank goodness I could put off another round of interrogation!

"We should get back to class," Kyrius suggested. "Don't think our teacher will appreciate us skipping out on two periods when Yuki is mostly fine."

... Hearing him call me by that name in this situation actually made my heart skip a beat.

"Uhuh," Phoenicia nodded as she got up from her chair.

I was exceedingly grateful for the fact that Hoseki hadn't followed us in here. Otherwise I might've been inclined to challenge her to a duel right then and right there to get her to keep her mouth shut so she didn't let the news of my embarrassing situation get out to the whole school. Having Kyrius see it was enough... I didn't need the whole school egging me about it constantly. At least only him, Inoha and Phoenicia were hanging around here.

"Might as well go back and get tortured by Haibane-sensei again..." I sighed. Sometimes I really hated student life.

"Yup... Why can't we get less homework from him?" Inoha groaned.

"Geography isn't exactly the kind of subject that you can get by in without loads of homework, you know," Phoenicia pointed out. "Can you remember all the animals living around the Niagara Falls without using their names in about 10 essays?"

"We're not tested on that!" Inoha and I shouted.

"Just a metaphorical example," the petite girl said primly. "We'd get tested on Japanese stuff instead, but the questions would still be in the same format."

"Urk," I muttered.

"Fini-chan, please don't get started," my other best friend of the same gender sighed.

"What? It's the-" Phoenicia promptly took a poke to the rib from Inoha. "Alright! I'll stop, I'll stop!"

"Can't we just skip his class?" I asked no one in particular.

"You know how he acts when someone does that..." Kyrius shook his head.

"Let's just get going," Inoha shuddered visibly.

The four of us quickly left the infirmary, but just as we entered the corridor my body froze as the world around us turned blue. I sighed and prepared myself for the duel, relaxing myself with controlled breathing and closed eyes. When I reopened them I was standing in the middle of a corridor in a building seemingly made out of a patchwork of materials. Brick, metal, wood, you name it, the material was here.

"Junkyard stage," Kyrius idly remarked beside me as the HUD appeared in my view.

My opponent was... someone I hadn't met before. Aluminium Archer. A metal colour AND a long-ranged attacker? This was going to be interesting. Especially on this map where ranged attacks weren't useful due to the large amount of junk and debris littered all over the place.

"I've always been interested in archery myself," Phoenicia nodded.

"You're interested in everything," I sighed as I summoned my gun. "Best go look for him."

"Good luck, and be careful," Kyrius inclined his head towards me.

"I... I know," I stuttered slightly in my reply before running off for the nearest exit.

... Sometimes Kyrius made me so flustered.

With a quick kick of my feet I propelled myself out a nearby open window directly into the junkyard below. While in mid air I palmed several sensor pods and threw them out in roughly in the direction of my opponent. Before hitting the ground, a grappling hook shot out and latched onto a tall piece of junk, slowing my descent enough for me to make an almost completely silent landing.

One problem I was well aware of in this battlefield was that Aluminium Archer, if he held true to his name, used a bow, he would have indirect fire capabilities. Unlike my gun, which could only shoot straight ahead, a bow could fire projectiles on a ballistic trajectory to arc over obstacles. I did have indirect fire weapons, but my heat-seeking missiles were far more likely to lock on to a hot engine or something, and anything else would deplete my special bar too much to use at the start of the battle.

However, my rate of fire was likely faster, so if I could get into close range and surprise him, I'd have the advantage of keeping him off balance more easily. This battle would be one of stealth - whoever found the other first would have the upper hand. But I'd also win if I could get into melee range.

I quickly picked up a signature from one of my sensor pods indicating a moving Duel Avatar nearby. Of course, he was heading towards me... and he was close. A quick thought activated my location indicator jammer before I fired my grappling hooks directly upwards and pulled myself into the air to hang under a crane.

And then I waited.

He passed right by underneath, allowing me to get a good look at his Duel Avatar. True to his name, he wore light aluminium armour over a wiry frame, with the typical hand and elbow guards expected of an archer. His bow... was not quite what I had expected. Instead of a traditional quiver, his bow actually held the arrows on its limbs like in a normal gun magazine. I counted roughly 30 arrows on each limb, and the large bow itself was in the shape of an X with energy bowstrings, so there was a whopping total of 120 ready to be rapid-fired at a target. That and he had two backup magazines on his back.

A cold bead of sweat rolled down my virtual brow - this guy really looked deadly. Still, I couldn't afford to give up just because he was intimidating! In one quick movement, I palmed two landmines from my backpack dispenser and flung them at Aluminium Archer before letting myself drop. Apparently he managed to sense the attack in time as he spun around and let two arrows rip in quick succession, spearing the landmines right through and detonating them harmlessly in mid-air.

I dropped through the resulting cloud of smoke in full burst with my gatling gun, spraying him with lead. Not in the least did he flinch, instead opting to use his bow as a shield. My bullets bounced off it harmlessly, though some got through and chipped away at his health. Once I reached point-blank range, I switched to cannon mode and fired at that instant.

The impact and subsequent explosion of the shell sent both of us flying, him further as he flew bodily into a junk heap that collapsed on him. His health dropped quite a bit, while I took only a little damage thanks to a significantly better landing.

"Not bad."

Aluminium Archer climbed out of the rubble easily and stood beside it, staring at me.

"I'm just getting started!" I fired another high-explosive shell at him, only for him to meet the slow-moving projectile with an arrow causing it to prematurely detonate.

This time, instead of charging through the dust cloud, I slammed the butt of my gun into the ground as the bottom opened up.

"Rocket Salvo!" I cried out.

The barrage of rockets flying out of the launcher flew through the cloud as it dispersed, but already my opponent was on the move. None of the unguided projectiles hit their mark, much to my frustration. Then again, his Duel Avatar was supposed to be really light as aluminium... It was to be expected, but at the same time I felt like I was getting into the fight. It wasn't every day you got the chance to fight someone with the same style as yourself!

A spread of arrows flew my way, but I effortlessly intercepted them by swinging my gun like a baseball bat to deflect them. Almost immediately he was at my side, also swinging his bow... wait, it was just one of the bow limb magazines that had been on his back! And it still had those pointy arrows on it!

I ducked under the attack and kicked at him only for him to jump back out of range. My momentum carried me around in a full spin, allowing me to bring my gun to bear in gatling mode. Another spray of bullets forced him back a little even while I grabbed a large tyre from the junkyard and lobbed it at him with my free hand.

Aluminium Archer, in a move that reminded me VERY much of myself, punted it right back at me using the side of the extra bow limb magazine he was wielding as a sword. My eyes widened in surprise - I barely managed to move my head aside before the tyre sailed through the space it had been occupying.

"Copycat!" I complained out loud before throwing a chunk of a car into the air and whacking it right at him. On the off chance he actually did whack it back...

... Which he did, I returned fire. Somehow it turned into a tennis match between the two of us, whacking the wrecked car chunk between us. After a while the thing couldn't take it anymore and completely broke into pieces. And it did it when I tried to hit it back, meaning I got a faceful of junk.

And of course my opponent seized the chance to open up with a salvo of arrows. I managed to block a few of them, but most got through and struck my legs. The result - I was left almost immobilised while Aluminium Archer rained down arrows on me. I gritted my teeth and ordered the CIWS turrets on my shoulders to start intercepting while I swapped to an offensive stance.

The turrets opened fire, keeping most of the arrows off me while I grabbed two handle on top of my gun, swapping to an underarm grip stabilised by holding another handle further towards the muzzle as the gun folded outwards rapidly into a large energy cannon. Because of the position of the turrets, I couldn't use my original Photon Maser special attack in its usual position, so it had changed to fire from this position instead.

"Photon Maser!" I shouted after the brief charge up time and targeting sequence.

A hot beam of red light erupted from the end of my gun, practically melting through the arrows currently flying at me and hitting my surprised opponent in one of his bow limbs. When I strafed the beam across I managed to get a second one before the attack cooled down and the beam dissipated.

I switched back to the normal grip for my gun as it folded back into its normal mode and surveyed the damage I had dealt. A good half of Aluminium Archer's health was now depleted, and the Burst Linker was standing a good distance away using his bow as a crutch. Missing the two upper limbs it made for a pretty strange sight, until it folded back into the form of a standard bow with only two limbs.

I quickly seized the chance to pull the arrows out of my leg, wincing slightly as my brain registered the fake pain signals. Damn, I hated it when I took incapacitating damage. It always seemed to hurt so much more than standard damage... plus not being able to move a limb was NOT fun during a fight.

"My turn," Aluminium Archer whispered as he stood up and levelled his bow at me. "Squall Razor!"

I barely had time to blink before several arrows launched directly from his magazines, each following a curved trajectory towards me. I could even see the wide blades of wind they were projecting from their arrowheads, so I knew I'd have to dodge further than usual.

The first one came in low, so I blocked it by ramming the muzzle of my gun into the ground and allowing it to tank the damage. The next two were high - I ducked while swinging my body horizontally about the gun to also dodge the one coming in low. Then there were four coming in from all directions forming an X shape - that I dodged by firing a high-explosive shell directly into the ground using my gun's cannon mode. That move propelled me into the air, damaging myself slightly as I was pelted with dirt and junk.

Aluminium Archer looked up just in time to get a faceful of bullets from my gun in gatling mode on my way down. The attack distracted him enough for me to drop down in front of him and lash out at his midsection with my foot. The attack connected solidly, knocking him back a good distance. I quickly followed up with a shot to the head in sniper mode, dealing heavy damage and stunning him.

He didn't look like he would be recovering anytime soon, so I followed up by planting my feet solidly in the ground and pointing my gun right at him. It quickly switched to railgun mode, driving the stabiliser spike deep into the ground as a loud crackle of electricity indicating the weapon charging resounded through the air.

Just as Aluminium Archer recovered, I cried out, "Railgun Strike!" and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

"You always seem to be able to find time to use that, don't you?" Kyrius asked.

"Well, it's fun..." I shrugged.

"Use what?" Inoha blinked in confusion.

"Just a move in a game we both play," the only other male around replied nonchalantly.

"You two are now close enough to tell what the other is talking about without even specifically mentioning it!?" Inoha gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

Ahahaha... That wasn't even the case! But it wasn't like we could tell her we were Burst Linkers... Ugh... Kyrius, why couldn't you think up a better lie!? Phoenicia wasn't even trying to hide her giggling... This was embarrassing! Really embarrassing!

"Let's... Let's just get back to class!" I half-shouted as I strode off at a quick pace.

"Suspicious..." I heard Inoha whisper to someone, most likely Phoenicia.

It was pretty obvious from the way her giggling increased in intensity. I gave a snort in response and whirled around to face them with my hands on my hips.

"Are you going to stay there for the rest of the day or something?" I practically demanded.

"Definitely suspicious," Inoha repeated, just loud enough for me to hear.

"And I can hear you perfectly fine, Inoha-chan!" I pointed at her, my brow furrowed in irritation.

Phoenicia completely lost it and broke into laughter. I groaned and covered my cheeks with my hands… Please don't let it continue; please don't let this humiliation continue!

"All right, all right, if we keep doing this in the corridor we'll get caught and accused of ditching class," Kyrius interrupted.

Oh thank goodness.

"Spoilsport," Inoha sighed, but gave in at a sharp glance from Kyrius.

The four of us headed back to the classroom without any further distractions. Thankfully the teacher didn't raise any problems after Kyrius presented his permission slip from the school nurse, even though he did grumble a bit about 'overly concerned friends'. I pretended I didn't hear that and quickly returned to my seat. Just as I planted my butt firmly on it, my message tone rang out clearly in my ears, and a letter icon popped up in the top right corner of my HUD.

I quickly tapped it, bringing up the message and scanning through it.

_Meet me later at 7 pm. The usual place. We have to talk._

_Scarlet Rain_

I froze abruptly. Why the heck would she be looking for me now? I left Prominence ages ago… and she should already know about me joining Nega Nebulous. Did she want me back in Prominence? Or was it for a totally different reason? Ugh, I'd just have to wait until I met her to get an answer from her. Otherwise I'd end up confusing myself way too much… Would it be wise to bring someone else with me? No, we knew each other enough for her to try and ambush me. Besides, I didn't even hold any real position of power within Nega Nebulous. She wouldn't gain anything from ambushing me and taking me out of the game.

Well, maybe it would be better for me to go alone anyway. I probably still knew enough Prominence members for them not to purposely engage me in combat when I went in. Hopefully the new blood wouldn't threaten me…

I absent-mindedly tucked several stray strands of hair behind my ear as I listened to the teacher droning on. It would be best if the day would end faster – it'd let me settle this little problem faster. Would it be a good idea to inform Black Lotus? Nah, she'd probably scold the crap out of me for traipsing into enemy territory alone and demand I take an escort. I let out a small sigh and turned my mind back to the lesson. Best not to think too much about this.

Yet again I found my thoughts wandering off to the handsome foreigner sitting on the other side of the class diligently taking notes. I couldn't help but think of him every time I felt that hairclip sitting on my head. That hairclip with REAL diamonds that he had somehow managed to force on me. Honestly, what made him give that kind of extravagant gift? I knew he was rich, being the son of the founder of the Igzelier Corporation all the way across the world in Italy… but he didn't exactly give off the aura of a reckless spender. Why did he have to buy it for me?

"Every time I feel like I have you figured, you throw me for six with something unexpected…" I whispered gently as I laid my head on my right hand, resting on my desk.

Exactly how should I feel about him? Right now our relationship was pretty much 'just friends', but yet I felt this attraction to him that clearly didn't feel like 'just friends'. He never really acknowledged it though… even though I was sure I had accidentally shown my true feelings to him on more than several occasions. Then again, he was quite dense… Ugh, I needed to work harder to get him to notice. Perhaps a gift in return? I could see if Ryusei –niichan could help foot a bit of the bill…

But then I realized he most likely had everything he needed already, so what was the point in giving him a gift? Or maybe it just needed to something else other than something useful for him… A ring?

WAIT A SECOND, THAT WOULD FEEL LIKE PROPOSING! NO WAY!

An earring? Nah… I doubted he'd even wear those. A letter? I didn't know what to write… A shirt? My sense of style wasn't good enough… Underwear?

…

WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING ABOUT!?

I quickly turned back to the floating notepad in my HUD and began taking notes earnestly…

...

"_Yuki, I love you," Kyrius said._

…

I tore the offending page of the floating notepad off and tossed it at the trash can icon, where it quickly shattered into fragments and dissipated. He just had to mess up my thoughts every single darn time his face floated through my mind… Another sigh escaped my lips but I quickly stopped when I saw the teacher glancing in my direction. This particular teacher was usually sharp enough to notice sighs and yawns in his class, and was likely to take those as slights on his teaching methods. I really couldn't let my guard down here…

When the bell rang about 20 minutes later and he left the class, I let out a breath I didn't even know I had been holding in. Finally he was gone… pretty much none of my classmates really liked the guy either. Then again, the feeling was quite mutual – I idly wondered how long it was before he would retire. I really really hoped that day would come soon, and I was sure my classmates shared the same sentiment. Especially after the truckload of homework he had just dumped on us.

"Come to think of it, Haibane-sensei doesn't really like Yuki-chan either, even though she's one of the top students in the class…" Phoenicia mused as our usual group gathered around.

"Does he even have someone he likes?" Inoha snorted in derision, "It does make you wonder how he even manages to stay on the staff with that attitude of his."

"Word on the street is that even the headmaster is scared of him," Aida whispered.

"Not surprising… I wonder if it explains why the other teachers always leave a little earlier before his periods and come later after," Inoha nodded.

"Should we really be gossiping about Haibane-sensei, anyway?" I asked.

"Well, he invited it on himself anyway," Aida sighed. "Nobody really likes him."

"Anyway, what do you guys want to do after class today?" I hurriedly tried to change the subject. Talking bad about a teacher didn't really sit well with me…

"Hmm, I don't know…" Inoha put a finger to her lip in thought.

"I have club activities, sorry," Phoenicia shook her head sadly. "The Literature Club is having a meeting today…"

"It's okay, Fini-chan," I patted her back gently.

"If I'm not mistaken there should also be a meeting between the class representatives later after school, so I probably won't be able to come either," Kyrius sighed. "Honestly though, these meetings are boring… but I still have to go regardless."

"Yeah… I guess we won't be able to have much fun with only three of us," I indicated Inoha and Aida.

"I don't know about Sanno, but I think he also has something to do…"

"What are the chances of it being trying to peek in the girl's bathroom?" I folded my arms hotly.

There was a particularly loud sneeze from the adjacent classroom.

"Quite high," Inoha balled up a fist, her irritation with the Peeping Tom clear.

"Should we report him to the Head Girl again?" Phoenicia suggested.

"I heard they have a baseball bat in the girl's bathroom just to deal with him. Is that true?" Aida looked at the three of us girls.

"Yep," I nodded, recalling the time I had managed to score a home run with that particular baseball bat. Where did I hit him with it again…?

"Scary."

"Well, it could be for you too…" Inoha let her words trail off.

"I'm not as bad as him!"

Another loud sneeze from the adjacent classroom.

"Well, I actually have to be somewhere later so I can't go out either," I sighed as I recalled Yuniko's message. It did sound pretty urgent after all… "Sorry guys."

"It's fine. I guess we'll just split later then?" Kyrius smiled and looked around. When no one voiced any objections he nodded, "Then it's decided."

* * *

I nervously looked around the shop as I pushed through the door. It had been ages since I had last been here… and it was still the same place as ever. I always did wonder why Yuniko insisted on meeting here all the time, but then again, the maid café probably was quite the unanticipated meeting place. Most people wouldn't even think of meeting at such a place… I had to commend her brilliance, using reverse psychology like this.

"Welcome back, ojou-sama!" one of the maids bowed to me as I entered.

"Thanks," I smiled at her.

"We've been expecting you," a very familiar maid with long, braided black hair and crimson red eyes approached me. "Master hasn't arrived yet, so wait for her in the back room."

"Nice to see you again, Pard-san," I nodded. "What's this all about?"

"I'll let Master tell you herself."

Same as ever… she hadn't really changed in all the time since I left Prominence. Blood Leopard led me through a door in the back of the shop into a rather cosy room with cushy couches running along two walls and a low coffee table in the middle. I recognized the room – I had been here several times before after all.

"Master should be here in about 5 minutes. Please make yourself comfortable," she said as I sat down on a couch.

"Sorry for the trouble," I nodded.

"N.P," was her curt reply as she left the room.

I always thought that Blood Leopard had quite the attitude even though she was a maid… Then again, Scarlet Rain herself did have quite the attitude for an elementary schoolgirl. Maybe there was some truth in the statement that like-minded people tended to gather… And then that reminded me of some of the other more… eccentric members of the Red Legion. I hadn't forgotten about that guy… or was it girl? I couldn't really tell when it came to his or her Duel Avatar, and he/she/it never really told us his/her/its gender, and really liked it when people asked about it, only to never give a straight reply. Helped that his/her/its voice was really androgynous.

I wondered if I could also consider perversion another form of eccentricity, like with the three perverts I somehow found myself hanging around constantly. Ryusei-niichan the 'sneaky' pervert, Sanno the 'blatant' pervert and Aida the 'lucky' pervert…

"Sorry for the wait!" A familiar petite red-haired, twintailed girl practically waltzed into the room.

I saw Blood Leopard give me a nod through the doorway before leaving us to our own devices and closing the door.

"I haven't seen you in a while, Niko," I smiled affectionately.

"You too, one-chan!" Kozuki Yuniko replied, still putting up her childish persona.

Kozuki Yuniko in real life, or rather Niko as she preferred to be called… She was the leader of the Red Legion, Prominence and also my former legion master. She went by several names, most notoriously the moniker she gained for her method of combat in the Accelerated World – Immobile Fortress. Her actual name in the Accelerated World was Scarlet Rain, Rain as in the rain of projectiles she usually sent flying at her opponents. In a long-ranged fight she was almost invincible thanks to her Duel Avatar's thick armour and heavy focus on extreme long-ranged weaponry. In most fights I saw her involved in, she had never even moved a single inch, instead deploying her Immobile Fortress External Armament to utterly pulverize her enemies from range through the superior firepower it mounted.

And you'd never suspect that she was _just_ a kid in real life. But then again people tended to mature faster if they spent so much time in the Accelerated World experiencing time at an accelerated rate anyway.

"Anyway, what did you call me here for today?" I asked. "You should already know I joined Nega Nebulous, and I doubt most of the other legion masters have any love for us."

Almost immediately Yuniko's eyes narrowed from her previously playful face to her serious one, completely dropping the façade she put up in her daily life. She crossed her legs quite roughly and rested her arms on the couch's backrest casually before she started to speak.

"Yeah, I know, but this is a matter I don't really trust anyone else to help me out with," she said, "Besides, it's precisely because you're now a member of Nega Nebulous that I want to talk to you."

"Huh?" I blinked in surprise.

"Have you heard of the Armour of Catastrophe?" Yuniko asked in a low tone.

I froze up. That was one name I had not expected to be brought up ever again. True, I had started playing Brain Burst a little while before that entire thing happened, and I never met it in battle… but the tales from my legion mates about that… thing were terrifying enough. An External Armament that induced rage and madness in its user. Any who wore the armour turned into berserk monsters, rampaging across battlefields and killing all who got in their way with the most gruesome methods possible…

"THAT Armour of Catastrophe!?" I gasped.

"Yes, that one."

"But… but… wasn't it destroyed two and a half years ago?"

"I believed that at first… but…"

A hint of sadness crossed Yuniko's face for a short moment. It was a rare expression to be seen on her face – too rare for nothing not to be going on. I quickly connected the dots.

"It's… someone in Prominence, isn't it?" my heart sank. I still had some lingering connections to other Burst Linkers in the Red Legion… I sure hoped it wasn't any of those I knew.

"You remember Cherry Rook?" the redhead asked sadly.

"Oh my god…" I trailed off and slumped into my couch. It just had to be him… "How!? How did he get infected by the Armour of Catastrophe!?"

"That's a question I'd like to know the answer to myself!" Yuniko stood up abruptly, her hands balled into fists as a sign of her rage. "I'm about as mad at this whole thing as you are! To make matters worse, he's going around attacking Burst Linkers from other legions in his enraged state and breaking the peace treaty!"

"That means…" my face paled rapidly.

"I'll have to put him down if this keeps up," Yuniko looked away from me, not quite fast enough for me to miss the tear leaking down her cheek.

"…" I was speechless for a moment.

I knew Yuniko liked the guy a lot. Heck, even I did too – he had been my surrogate mentor of sorts, helping me get used to the game when Lava Blaster wasn't able to help me train. I also knew Cherry Rook was Yuniko's guardian, despite Yuniko herself being about 3 levels higher. But… what had really happened? Cherry Rook didn't seem like the kind of person to give in to the Armour of Catastrophe's rage… why did he end up with it? Why was he using it!?

"Look, I need a favour from you, Yukina," Yuniko took her seat again.

"Go ahead… I'll do all I can to help," I said determinedly.

"Come with me to a meeting later this week. We'll be meeting with other people to put together a plan to deal with Cherry Rook."

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**A/N: If you laughed at any point in the chapter, please do drop a review! The more reviews come in, the more inspired I'll be to finish up the chapters faster. =)**


	12. Chapter 10: Omake

**A/N: A little late on posting this omake since this fanfic hit 2k views already a while back, but I wanted to wait till I finished chapter 10.**

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**Chapter 10.5 Omake**

"Let's go to a cake shop! I know a good one nearby!" Yuniko pumped her fist in the air playfully.

"Why not?" Sanno grinned.

I gave the notorious pervert a decidedly questioning look. Whenever he agreed to something like this he usually had some ulterior motive... or he could simply be interested in having some cake. Who didn't like it? I smiled faintly as I recalled the exquisite taste of that French chocolate cake with a touch of wine that I had sampled once...

"Yuki-chan, you're drooling," Phoenicia pointed out.

I wiped it off with my sleeve in a hurry, but the damage was already done. My cheeks went bright red under the combined scrutiny of Phoenicia, Sanno and Yuniko...

"Let's just go!" I turned around and walked off in a random direction in an attempt to hide my blush...

"Yuki-chan, that's the wrong way," until Yuniko pointed out the problem.

I froze mid-step. "I... I knew that!"

"No you didn't, you've probably never been there before," Inoha countered.

"Killjoy," I muttered audibly.

That got quite a bit of laughter from the others present at my expense. I merely grunted and turned back to follow Yuniko, keeping my head down all the while to prevent my reddening face from being seen.

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Apparently Yuniko was a regular customer here, judging by her familiarity with the staff. Heck, she practically knew all of them by name! Then again there was the off chance all of them were Burst Linkers in her legion - they certainly looked young enough for the part.

"One strawberry special cheese cake!" the petite redhead ordered as she planted herself firmly on one of the chairs at the table we had taken.

"Make that two!" I quickly added.

All thoughts of Burst Linkers quickly left my head as I began to think of my favourite fruit - strawberries on top of my favourite cheese cakes liberally coated in cream and icing... Oh what a feast for the eyes. I licked my lips in expectation and took my own seat beside Yuniko. Inoha sat on my other side.

Sanno was in the toilet - he had apparently been holding it in for ages.

Actually come to think of it I might need to go soon too, if the strained feeling inside me was any indication. A few minutes after our slices of cake arrived, the feeling became unbearable so I rose and headed for the toilet. Apparently by sheer coincidence, Yuniko also had to go, so we went together after a quick explanation to Inoha.

It didn't take too long, and we returned to the table to notice that Sanno was back and sitting with Inoha. For some reason he looked gleeful, while Inoha looked a little... surprised. I idly wondered what he was up to, but dismissed it as I sat back down to enjoy my cake...

Sanno paled abruptly.

An ominous presence made itself known beside me. I dropped my fork and slowly turned to face the source. The petite redhead beside me was radiating a positively terrifying red aura.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Yuniko, Scarlet Rain, leader of the Red Legion, Prominence was pissed. VERY pissed.

"Which shithead took a bite out of my cake!? Huh!?" Psycho Yuniko made an appearance.

A shivering, pale and terrified Inoha quickly pointed at the only male at the table, who was in much the same state. Probably more severe considering he was the target of Yuniko's ire. When she went into her Psycho Mode... it was never good to get on her bad side.

The Red King got out of her seat and advanced menacingly towards Sanno.

"Forgive me!" he squeaked in pure terror before backing off and hightailing it out of the store.

"Come back here you cake-stealing son of a bitch!" Yuniko raged as she gave chase. "When I catch up to you I'll rip your ***** out, bake them into cakes and force feed them down your throat!"

I stared blankly after the duo until my mind registered exactly what Yuniko had been yelling. At that point my cheeks reddened as I inadvertently began imagining such a scene... Eh, now wasn't the time for that!

"... Niko-chan is really something, isn't she..." Inoha stared slack-jawed at the open door.

"Well... Just don't get on her bad side," I shuddered.

"Will she actually... carry out that... threat?" Inoha whispered.

"I... I don't know."

"It sounds... painful."

"I know... Why did he do that anyway?"

"He said something about successfully stealing an indirect kiss from you..."

"Uh... So he ate the wrong cake?"

"Well... I couldn't react in time to stop him..."

"..."

"..."

"I don't envy his current position," I shivered in fear.

"Me neither," Inoha agreed.

"..."

"..."

"Cake?" I suggested to break the silence.

"Yeah," Inoha picked up her spoon.

Far away in the distance, I heard a bell tolling even as a sharp, high-pitched scream reverberated through the air.

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**A/N: Anyone get the bell thing? (Hint hint: It has to do with something round being hit by something hard)**


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